SOME INSECTS ONLY OCCASIONALLY INJURIOUS. Ill 



French ; in Seventh Rept. Ins. 111., 1878, p. 331 (iu corn). 



LiNTNEU : in Count. Gent., xliv, 1879, p. 503 ; xlv, 1880, p. 473; in 39th Ann. 

 Rept.N. Y. St. Agrical. Soc. for 1879 (1880), pp. 48-53, figs. 1, 3. 



An insect which had rarely, if ever, been known to exist in such 

 numbers as to commit serious depreciations, and which by its com- 

 parative rarity and the nature of its food-plants, had never been classed 

 by entomologists among the injurious insects, may, from an inex- 

 plicable combination of circumstances and conditions, suddenly appear 

 in so great number as to enlist general attention to its extensive ravages. 

 No better illustration of this fact can be given than that afforded by 

 recent demonstrations of the Orthopterous insect, Diapheromera fem- 

 orata (Say), popularly known, from its long and attenuated body and 

 limbs, as the walking-stick, skeleton-bug, spectre insect, etc. This 

 species, which had long been regarded as harmless and comparatively 

 rare, has within a few years past increased to such an amazing extent 

 in certain localities in Vermont, New York, New Jersey, and else- 

 where, as completely to devour the foliage of various kinds of trees 

 over broad districts of woodland. In Yates county. New York, on the 

 farm of Mr. G. C. Snow, their destructivcness, during the past six years, 

 has been most remarkable, having entirely defoliated above twenty-five 

 acres of hickory, oak, etc., and caused the death of a large number of 

 trees. In their travels to obtain food, they covered the fences and the 

 ground, and their closely packed bodies were a hindrance to their 

 progress. For an extended and interesting account of their extraor- 

 dinary multiplication at this locality, the report of Prof. Riley, con- 

 tained iu the Anniual Beport of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 

 1878, may be consulted. 



Reference to the above insect has been made, prefatory to a short 

 notice of occasional injuries to important crops, by the Noctuid moth, 

 Gortyna nitela Guen., or the stalk-borer. This insect has not secured 

 a prominent place in the list of insect pests, yet at intervals, in certain 

 localities, complaints are made of serious depredations inflicted by it. 

 More frequently, it falls under our notice as a borer in the pith of plants 

 cultivated in our gardens, as in the stems of asters, dahlias, lilies, 

 spinach, etc. 



In the early part of July of last year, examples of the larva were sent 

 to me for their name and best method of checking their injuries, from 

 a gentleman residing at Mousey, Rockland county, N. Y. They had 

 appeared in strong force in a potato field, and their burrows within the 

 stems had caused a large number of the stems to wilt, and to break at 

 holes which had been eaten into them, for the entrance of the larvae 

 or for the expulsion of the excrementa. The larvas were fed by me 

 some time in confinement. 



