58 SOME INSECTS INJUKIOUS TO TRUCK CROPS. 



Feeds on the Poke, Careless, &c. It went into the ground July the 5th, and 

 came out the 16th. I once met this caterpillar in such abundance, that among 

 a great quantity of Poke plants there was scarcely a single leaf untouched; 

 most of these caterpillars, however, were fly-blown by a kind of Ichneumon. 

 The moth is rare. 



This is allied to our Ph. fnigiperda and Commclimc. Between the under 

 wings of all these there is the greatest affinity. Their pupw too are of a 

 similar bright red color, and their smooth-striped caterpillars have much 

 resemblance to each other. 



RECENT INJURIES AND BIOLOGIC NOTES. 



On May 14, 1007, this species was observed on the leaves of tomato 

 in the truck garden of Mr. C. M. Berry, at Orlando, Fla., where it 

 was eating holes in the leaves. Numbers of plants, here and there, 

 were infested and in most cases the entire plant was injured. The 

 same larva was observed on pokeweed {Phytolacca decaiuhn), and 

 afterwards on spiny amaranth {Ainamnthns spinosus). By May 20 

 the larva' were scattering and had grown rapidly, some being an 

 inch long. While j'oung, these larva? feed on the underside of the 

 leaf, but with larger growth some were noticed feeding on the upper 

 surface as well. 



May 24 an egg-mass was found on a leaf of the spiny amaranth, 

 laid in two sections on the under surface, one on each side of the 

 midrib. One mass had hatched at this time and the larva? were be- 

 ginning to eat pinlike holes through the leaf. 



On July 3 a field of Irish potatoes w^as found to be very badly in- 

 fested by these larva^. They were now nearly full-grown and had 

 stripped the potato vines, many being observed crawling away from 

 the field in all directions. On one side they infested a garden at 

 least 600 feet away, and were feeding upon eggplant, pepper, okra, 

 and castor-oil plants. 



Some interesting notes were made on the abundance of this species 

 in this potato field. On a single young plant of Amaranthus, 41 

 larva^ were counted, and as many as 314 on a plant measuring feet 

 in height. A careful estimate of the larva^ on 10 plants of careless 

 weed, not over 6 feet in height, gave a total of 1,300 individuals. 

 (See fig. 9.) 



To illustrate the voracity of these larvae, where any potatoes were 

 exposed, they were soon covered by the larva^ and the entire contents 

 eaten out so that they were rendered worthless in about ten minutes. 

 About this same date, July 3, the larva- were reported making quick 

 work of amaranth; whenever a branch became broken from any 

 cause, larva? entered at the break and excavated tunnels several 

 inches in length. Pokeweed was entirely stripped of leaves, the 

 stalks and the shoots being eaten off at the outer end. Potatoes dug 



