THE SQUASH-VINE BORER : LIFE-HISTORY AND HABITS. 6l 



Life-History and Habits. 



Our knowledge of the several stages of the life of this pest is quite in- 

 complete, as we find when we attempt to indicate the best methods for 

 preventing its injuries. 



In the New England States the parent moth, according to Dr. Harris, 

 may be seen flying about the plants from the loth of July until the middle 

 of August, attaching its eggs to the vines close to the roots. Its habits 

 have been carefully observed by the Rev. Mr. Hulst of Brooklyn, N. Y., 

 to whom we are indebted for the following statement: " The moth 

 appears on Long Island shortly after July ist [and probably earlier.] 

 During the summer of 1882, I captured some thirty specimens about a 

 small bed of summer squashes in a neighbor's garden. The moths fly 

 during the day, being the most active during the hottest sunshine, and 

 quiet in the early morning. I have seen only two pairs mated, and this 

 was between 2 and 3 p. m. The female lays her eggs morning and after- 

 noon, mostly on the stalk of the plant just below the ground. She ex- 

 tends her abdomen into the crack of the ground about the stem of the 

 plant, and the most of the eggs that I have seen were from one-fourth 

 to half an inch below the surface. Often, however, they were laid a foot 

 above the ground, and in a few instances were observed upon the peti- 

 oles of the leaves." 



The egg is oval and of a dull red color. The length of time required 

 for its hatching is not known, but it is probably about a week. Upon 

 hatching, the young larva at once burrows into the stem. It grows 

 rapidly, and when about half-grown, its effects are visible in the wilting 

 of the vines. Later, as the attack continues, and several larvje unite 

 in it, the vines die down to the root. This, in the latitude of New 

 York, is usually in the month of August. 



About the first of September some of the larvae have attained their 

 full growth, when they escape from the vine and construct their cocoons 

 a little below the surface of the ground in which to undergo their sub- 

 sequent changes, first to the pupa and lastly to the imago or moth. It 

 is possible that the larva does not always enter the ground for its final 

 transformations. Dr. Harris distinctly states that the cocoon is formed 

 in the ground of earth cemented by a gummy matter, but Dr. Packard 

 records of the larva that "it lives in the vine (in New England) until 

 the last of September, or early in October, when it either deserts the 

 vine and spins a rude earthen cocoon near the roots, or, as is often the 

 case, remains in the hollow it has made in the stalk, and then chnnges 

 to a chrysalis." 



Mr. Henry Stewart, of Hackensack, N. J., who has made a study of 



