INSECTS INJURIOUS IN 1902. 47 
I obtained pupae from hollyhocks on the 11th of August, the 
adult emerging from them in the breeding cage Sept. 7th. The 
ycung Caterpillar on emerging is purplish with light stripes run- 
ning along its body. As it gets older it becomes duller colored, 
and about midway of its length the color is such as to make that 
part appear diseased. 
Fig. 44.—The larva of the Stalk Borer, enlarged. 
Mr. T. L. Libbey of 8th St. S. E. Minneapolis, whose to- 
matoes were sorely threatened last summer, hit upon an ingenious 
method of killing the borer without injuring the vine. He had 
tried to reach the borer by introducing a wire into the mouth of 
its burrow, but found that the stem was so irregular in its growth 
that it was bruised and injured by this process. He then tried 
chloroform, injecting with a medicine dropper about one teaspoon- 
ful into the burrow and plugging the hole with cotton that the 
fumes might be retained in the burrow. This worked like a 
charm, killing the borer and beyond a slight browning of the vine 
at the point of application, no injury was occasioned. 
The use of noxious gases such as those of chloroform and the 
more universally used bisulphide of carbon to kill fruit pests are 
becoming quite common. The latter gas has been used success- 
fully in California against the Peach Tree Borer and no doubt 
would have been as efficacious against the Stalk Borer as was the 
much more expensive chloroform. 
A SCARABEID INJURING CORN. 
Ligyrus gibbosus, De}. 
On Aug. 7th the Entomologist received from Mr. J. W. Shu- 
