136 Forty-ninth Eeport on the State Museum 



which had excavated shallow cavities in the melons, or had penetrated 

 bodily into the same. The melons were too much injured to be eatable. 

 These worms, I naturally supposed, might be the pickle-worms, a moth 

 of which species I had just caught. 



In the course of two or three weeks I visited three melon patches, 

 where musk-melons had been planted for market. All presented the 

 same scene of total destruction. Most of the vines had been more or 

 less denuded of leaves, and the remains of the leaves contained brown 

 chrysalids or pupre "webbed up" in them. The melons, of various sizes, 

 were occupied in great measure by the worms. The younger worms were 

 generally confined to the surface, but the older had penetrated to differ- 

 ent depths. Some had excavated shallow cavities half an inch in diameter 

 and one-eighth of an inch in depth; each cavity occupied by one or more 

 worms. Others had penetrated perpendicularly into the melons, fre- 

 quently beyond sight. None had reached the hollow of the melon so 

 far as I saw. The melon crops of these three market-gardens were a 

 total loss. 



It appears that this species feeds more generally on the leaves in the 

 earlier part of the season than does the pickle-caterpillar. Mr. Dodge re- 

 ported in 1875 that it attacks first the bud, then works into the plant and 

 eventually kills it root and branch. Later Mr. Ashmead observed that 

 the food of the first brood of worms must be largely phyllophagous. 



Life-History and Ravages. 



It is probable that the round of life is completed in about the same 

 time as that of its congener, E. rntidalis, though there appears to be no 

 record to that effect. The larvae are most destructive the latter part of 

 the summer. The number of broods has not been definitely ascertained. 

 The larvae are said, as a rule, to migrate a short distance to some neigh- 

 boring tree or plant before spinning up for pupation. The duration of 

 the pupa state has not been recorded, but it is probably no longer than 

 that of the nitldalis. It passes the winter in the chrysalis. 



In 1875 ^^^ insect was very destructive to cucumbers at Indian River, 

 Fla., where it was reported as ruining the crop. In 1887 Mr. Ashmead 

 reported the crop of cantaloupes and muskmelons as totally destroyed 

 by this insect in the same State, and in 1889 it was again reported as 

 quite injurious for the past few years. Its injuries in Georgia in 1879 

 have been given in detail in a preceding paragraph. In 1891 it was 

 reported as very destructive in Mississippi to melons, cucumbers and 

 cashaws the previous season. It is also injurious at times to pumpkins. 



Description of the Insect. 

 The larva is smaller than that of the pickle-caterpillar, being but eight- 

 tenths of an inch in length. The color is translucent green or pale 



