242 Forty-fifth Report on the State Museum. 



ends in a ring; paper wraps around the stalks at setting; and 

 trapping in holes, for the protection of young cabbage and tomato 

 plants; as also, thick planting and subsequent thinning; and 

 starvation through the removal of all green food, for more general 

 protection. Notice of these several methods may be found in a 

 paper entitled, Cat-Worms^ read by me before the New York 

 State Agricultural Society, at its annual meeting, in January 

 of the present year. 



Tobacco Worms. 



Representation has been made to me that serious and increas- 

 ing losses are being sustained in portions of Massachusetts, from 

 tobacco worms, accompanied with the request for means of pre- 

 vention. I am not told what the worm is of which the com- 

 plaint is made. 



If it be the insect that is commonly known as the " tobacco 

 worm," in New York and Connecticut, then it is the larva of a 

 sphinx moth Sjyhinx quinquemaculata. The true tobacco worm 

 is the larva of Sphinx Carolina^ which is so very destructive to 

 tobacco in the Southern States. The two species are very closely 

 allied in appearance and habits, and in Pennsylvania often occur 

 together. 



The larva of our five-sjwtted Sphinx is well-known to all of our 

 tobacco growers. It is a dark-green, smooth caterpillar, with 

 seven oblique greenish-yellow stripes on each side, a long, curved 

 horn upon its terminal end, and, when full-grown, is of about the 

 size of the third finger of a man's hand. The moth is a large 

 and handsome insect of a general ash-gray color, its stout body 

 marked with a row of five orange-colored spots on each side. It 

 comes abroad at twilight for the deposit of its eggs, and so 

 marked is its resemblance to a humming-bird in size, rapidity of 

 flight, and its hovering over flowers when taking its food, that 

 the popular name of "humming-bird moths" has been given to 

 that group of the SpTiingidce to which it belongs. 



The eggs of the moth are deposited upon the tobacco plants 

 during the months of June and July. The caterpillars feed upon 

 the leaves of the plants in late July, August, and September, 

 even up to the time of securing the crop. In an instance related 



