62 SECOND REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



the insect, says that he has never found the cocoons within the vines 

 and that they do not pupate therein. 



In the Southern States the more advanced larvae mature and form 

 their cocoons as early as in the month of August. Of some examples 

 received by me from Baltimore, Md., one of them spun itself up in a 

 silken cocoon in an angle of the box in which it had been placed on 

 the day of its reception, August 14.. 



Until recently it has been supposed that the larva changed to a pupa 

 shortly after it had made its cocoon, in accordance with what has been 

 observed in the transformations of by far the larger portion of our 

 insects. More careful observations seem to show that the larva, usually 

 at least, continues in its caterpiller state throughout the winter. Mr. 

 N. Coleman, of Berlin, Conn., under date of February 24, has given 

 the following statement: 



" From numerous observations, I am assured that this insect hiber- 

 nates in the caterpillar stage, and does not transform to the pupa state 

 until the spring. The pupa cases [cocoons] are formed in the latter part 

 of the summer, and, in every instance thus far, I have found the larvae 

 in the cases unchanged. The last examination w^as made only a day or 

 two since." 



With the emergence of the moth from its pupal case early in Jul)-, 

 as previously stated, its appearance on the wing, the coupling of the 

 sexes and the deposit of the eggs, its life cycle is completed. 



Its Injuries- 



The reports of injuries by this insect are becoming more frequent, 

 and are assuming a more serious form than heretofore. It was for- 

 merly supposed that the earlier squashes were the more liable to be 

 infested by it, but of late the Hubbard suffers the most severely, and 

 to an extent that in some localities is preventive of its culture. The 

 statement given on a preceding page by P. V. B., of Coxsackie, of the 

 effort made to repel the attack, the expenditure involved, the cut- 

 ting out of one hundred and forty-two Jarvce from a single vine, and 

 the entire subsequent loss of the crop, tells more fully than has been 

 told before, the story of the harm that this pest is now inflicting, not 

 only along the Hudson river, but in some of the Eastern States, New 

 Jersey and elsewhere — fortunately not to as great an extent, as yet, in 

 our Western States. The gentleman, in a subsequent communication, 

 informs me that it has been only known in his vicinity for the last twelve 

 or fifteen years, and during that time he has taken thousands of the 

 borers from the vines, in sizes varying from newly-hatched to one inch 

 and a half long. 



