THE VIOLET NEPHELODES : PREVIOUS OBSERVATIOXS. lOo 



corn and grass, burning our meadows and fields late in the spring 

 would doubtless destroy them." 



In the same report, p. 220, Prof. French also devotes a page to the 

 species, giving description of the larva and of the moth. — He adds : 

 '" I have no evidence that this insect ever becomes sufficiently numer- 

 ous to be injurious, but as it seems to be a general feeder upon some 

 plants that are beneficial to man, and as it is spread over a Avide range 

 of country, it may do so. In that case, we may judge from its cut- 

 worm habits that the remedies that serve to keep them in check will 

 also answer for this." 



Prof. Osborn, of the Iowa State Agricultural College, has given an 

 interesting account of a diseased condition of the larvae, which came 

 under his observation. He states (loc. cit.) : — 



" Nephelodes violcuis has been quite numerous in localities around the 

 college, though its damage has not been very perceptible. It is at- 

 tacked by some epidemic disease, wliich causes the death of large 

 numbers of them. The diseased worms will be found clinging to the 

 grass as high up on the stems as they can reach, their bodies swelled 

 to an unnatural size, and in the later stages exceedingly soft and ready 

 to fall to pieces. If undisturbed, and the weather dry, they finally 

 shrink away and only the dried skin and a mass of blackish matter 

 within it, remains. If examined at any time after they begin to show 

 the symptoms of disease, their blood will be found full of minute liv- 

 ing organisms {Bacteria), which seem to increase in numbers as the 

 disease progresses. They are also found even more abundantly in the 

 fluid taken from the alimentary canal. We here meet with the great 

 question which is so perplexing to the medical profession, whether the 

 microscopic animals are the cause of the disease, or an attendant or 

 consequent of it. * * * * We have the fact, and a 

 gratifying one, that some disease destroys great numbers of this insect, 

 which otherwise might cause great destruction to various important 

 crops." 



In a paper recently published by Professor Forbes, State Entomolo- 

 gist of Illinois, upon the Regulative Action of Birds u2)on Insect Os- 

 cillations, he records the larva of N. vidians as constituting a portion 

 of the food of robins {Turdus migi^aforins), catbirds {Mimus Carolin- 

 ensis), and red-winged blackbirds (.^^reZoJits Fhmniceus), shot in an or- 

 chard in Tazewell county, 111., during the latter part of the month of 

 May, for examination of the contents of their stomachs. {Bnll. JVo. G, 

 IlL State Lab. of Nat. Hist., 1882.) 



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