INSECTS INJURIOUS TO CUCUMBER, MELON, ETC. 171 



in good condition, free from disease and other insects, and well 

 nourished, with the assistance of manure or other fertilizer if 

 necessary, will also aid them to withstand attack. If the 

 grower would make certain of securing a good crop in localities 

 where this and other enemies of the squash occur in their most 

 destructive abundance, it will be necessary for protection against 

 this borer to observe most of the precautions specified and, if 

 possible, secure the cooperation of his neighbors. 



The Pickle Worm (Diaphania nitidalis Cram.). — In the Gulf 

 States and occasionally farther northward two caterpillars are 

 quite injurious to the fruit of melons and other cucurbits. The 

 term "melon worm" is applied to both, as also to the squash 

 borer, since all have the habit of boring into melons ; the last- 

 mentioned, however, is a vine-borer, while the other two, known 

 respectively as the pickle worm and melon caterpillar, feed in 

 their earlier stages in the buds or leaves, and in their later 

 stages in the fruits, which they frequently destroy. They are 

 about equally destructive and work usually by boring directly 

 into the interior, but sometimes eat cavities in the rind. 



Injury by the pickle worm is seldom noticed until it enters 

 the fruit. 



The moth (fig. 113, e) is a beautiful creature, quite distinct 

 from any other common species. The upper surface is brown 

 with purplish iridescence. Near the middle of the fore-wings 

 is a somewhat irregular yellowish semitransparent spot, and 

 the inner half or a little more of the lower wings is of the 

 same color. The wing expanse varies from an inch to nearly 

 one and a half inches. Larvae (a, b, c) vary from yellowish 

 to dull brownish green, with a dorsal row of shining round 

 spaces of the same color. 



The pickle worm is indigenous to America and is probably of 

 tropical origin. It occurs from South America to New York, 

 Michigan and Illinois. It is injurious every year in the Gulf 

 States, instances of damage farther north being only periodical. 



