116 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [\'ol, 9 



somewhat over one hundred. More than half of these belong to the 

 genus Crambus. In his systematic treatment of the same group in 

 1896, Dr. C. H. Fernald hsted and described 82 species and varieties. 

 In that work he also briefly summarized all that had been published 

 up to that time on the biologies of the group with the result that 62 

 of the 82 species have, appended to the description, this statement: 

 "Early stages and food plant unknown." For most of the other 20 

 species all the information given in addition to the description of the 

 moth is a quotation of Dr. Felt's description of the egg and first instar 

 larva and no facts are recorded as to their habits and life-histories. 

 Since the papers by Felt and Fernald, a few hsts of species occurring 

 in various parts of the country have appeared, but, except in the case 

 of one or two species, nothing has been done which adds to our knowl- 

 edge. The necessity for such work is unquestioned. Thirteen species 

 have been recorded in literature or found by us feeding on and injuring 

 some field crop aside from meadow and pasture grasses. Chilo ple- 

 jadellus, the rice stalk-borer, Diatrcea saccharalis, the sugar-cane borer 

 and Diatrcea zeacolella, the larger corn stalk-borer of the southern states, 

 the group of three closely related and possibly synonymous species, 

 Cramhiis caliginosellus, zeellus and luteolellus, called generally the corn 

 and tobacco webworms, and Cramhus hortuelhis, the cranberry girdler, 

 all belong here and in addition there must be added to the list of species 

 known to be injurious, Cramhus mutahilis, the striped webworm, 

 Crambus teterrellus, called by the late Miss Murtfeldt the bluegrass 

 worm, Crambus vulgivagellus, the vagabond Crambus, Crambus tri- 

 sectus, the dried Crambus, and a number of others of less wide dis- 

 tribution. Crambus caliginosellus alone every year necessitates the 

 replanting and resetting of thousands of acres of corn and tobacco 

 in almost every state east of the Mississippi. If anyone doubts that 

 the grass-feeding species are capable of injury they can satisfy them- 

 selves bj"- a perusal of Lintner's account of an outbreak of Crambus 

 vulgivagellus in New York State in 1881 when hundreds of acres of 

 pasture and meadow were left so bare and brown that large numbers 

 of cattle had to be disposed of because of lack of food for them. A 

 somewhat similar outbreak was reported by Professor F. M. Webster 

 from northern Ohio in 1895. On that occasion fields of young corn 

 and oats as well as meadows were swept entirely bare by larvae, most 

 of them probably Crambus trisedus and mutahilis. 



So far as we have been able to discover in published records, not a 

 single individual of any species of the genus Crambus, nor, I believe, of 

 the family Crambidse, had been reared completely through from the 

 egg to adult in confinement until we succeeded in doing it at Nashville 

 last year. Dr. Felt undertook rearing experiments with some sixteen 



