December, '16] watson: vttlvet-bean caterpillar 521 



Throughout the season the emergence of the moths within the traps will 

 have significance. 



The time saved, during the busy growing season, by the usage of the 

 trap, instead of the destruction of the insects beneath the band by 

 hand, is one of the most important advantages of this device. 



It is beUeved that the solution of the codling moth problem in the 

 Grand Valley may be solved by a concerted movement against the 

 first brood. The success of this action, it is hoped, will be effected by 

 thorough and timely spraying supplemented with the codling moth 



trap. 



Explanation of Plate 38 



Fig. 1. Codling moth trap. 



Fig. 2. Codling moth larvae, pupae and adults in comparison with twelve mesh 

 wire screen cloth. 



LIFE-HISTORY OF THE VELVET-BEAN CATERPILLAR 

 (ANTICARSIA GEMMATILIS HUBNER) 



' By J. R. Watson, Gainesville, Fla. 



Velvet-beans {Stizolobium sp.) are among the most important forage 

 and soil-improving legumes of Florida and are more or less extensively 

 planted in the other gulf states. They are commonly grown on newly 

 cleared land, where they are of service in choking out sprouts and other 

 wild growth, and in cornfields, where they serve as a late summer cover 

 crop, taking possession of the ground and climbing over the stalks after 

 the corn matures in July or early August. They make a slow growth 

 until after the summer rains set in, in June or July, after which they 

 grow rapidly, a single vine sometimes reaching a length of forty feet. 

 The presence of the bushes or cornstalks increases the yield of seed, as 

 more pods set when the blossom racemes are kept off the ground. 

 The vines and immature pods are killed by even a slight touch of frost. 

 The dried pods will hang on the vines without shedding their seeds 

 for weeks or months, the time depending upon the species or variety, 

 and are used as winter forage for stock. The leaves and stems decay 

 and add much humus to the soil. 



Except a more or less regular toll levied by grasshoppers, the only 

 serious insect enemy of the plant in Florida and southern Georgia is 

 the larva of this noctuid moth. It presents somewhat of a problem 

 as the larva is a voracious feeder and velvet-beans are very easily 

 injured by arsenic compounds. The maximum dose that they will 

 stand is about twelve ounces of powdered lead arsenate, together with 

 the milk from a pound of lime, to fifty gallons of water. Even then 



