2 SECOND REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



frosts (23° and 24° Fahr.) had made them somewhat sluggish in their 

 movements. It was estimated that the yield of the crop had been less- 

 ened one-half by the attack of the insect upon it. Quite a number of 

 kinds of garden vegetables were also preyed upon by the Mamestra 

 larvae, but without committing serious injury. Their favorite garden 

 food-plant seemed to be sweet pea-vines — a long and dense row of which 

 proved very attractive to them. In Massachusetts they have occasion- 

 ally been extremely destructive to the rutabaga crop. Figures and 

 notice of the insect may be found in Dr. Harris' Treatise on Insects 

 Injurious to I'egcfafion, and in the Report of the Entomologist of the U- 

 S. Department of Agriculture for the year 1883. 



The attack upon the pastures and other grass lands in the northern 

 counties of the State by the Vagabond Crambus, Crambus vulgivagellus 

 Clem., which was the occasion of so great alarm and of serious loss 

 during the summer of 1881, was not repeated the following year. In 

 accordance with the opinion expressed in my report upon the insect, it 

 proved to be but an exceptional occurrence, resulting from a combina- 

 tion of circumstances which may not again be presented for a long 

 period of time. 



The attack of the Corn-worm, Heliothis arniiger Hiibn., upon the 

 corn fields of the southern portion of the State, as a consequence of the 

 unusual heat and drouth of the summer of 1881, was not repeated. Its 

 occurrence within our borders subsequently, has in no instance come to 

 my knowledge. 



The injury to clover-seed, from the clover-seed midge, Cecidomyia 

 leguniinicola Lintn., does not appear to be on the increase in the locali- 

 ties where it had formerly been so abundant, thus affording ground for 

 hope that it may not prove so disastrous to clover culture as it threatened 

 to be, but that the parasites that have attacked it (of which two species 

 are known, Eurytoma funebris and Platygastcr error), are rendering 

 efficient service in its destruction. It seems, however, destined to at- 

 tain to an extensive distribution, for not only has it reached the ex- 

 treme western portion of New York, but it has extended into Canada, 

 and excited no little alarm from the amount of clover-seed already de- 

 stroyed by it. According to the report of the recently appointed 

 Entomologist of the Dominion of Canada, Mr. James Fletcher, the in- 

 sect is proving even more destructive in its northern extension than in 

 our own State where its operations were first noticed. A few years 

 ago large quantities of Canadian seed were exported to the United 

 States, while at the present not enough is produced for home use. In 

 portions of Ontario, seed clover is reported as an entire failure, as the 

 result of the prevalence of the midge. The first complete destruction 



