9 
considerable growth within. From one to half a dozen or more lary 
inhabit a stem, and often upward of forty individuals have been taken 
from a single plant; indeed, one grower has stated that he once cut 
‘142 larve from a single vine.’ The larvee work with great rapidity 
and in a very short time are able to injure a plant so that no fruit 
will mature. Injury is most noticeable near the base of the stems, 
where in course of time the vine becomes severed from the roots and 
the whole vine dies. ; 
The parent of this insect is a beautiful creature, a medium-sized 
moth of the family Sesiidz, or clear-winged moths. The fore wings 
are opaque, lustrous olive-brown in color, with metallic green 
reflections, and expand from less than an inch to nearly an inch and 
a half. The hind wings are transparent and veined as shown in the 
accompanying illustration of the male (fig. 1, @). The abdomen is 
conspicuously marked with orange or red, black, and bronze, and 
the hind legs are fringed with long hairs—red or orange on the outer 
surface and black inside. The natural position of the moth when at 
rest is shown by the figure of the female .(b). 
DISTRIBUTION. 
As far as known, the squash-vine borer is a native of the Western 
Hemisphere, and widely distributed and injurious in the United 
States practically wherever squashes are cultivated. Available rec- 
ords and examination of material in the collection of the U.S. National 
Museum show that it has a range embracing territory from the New 
England States and Canada, in the north, to the Gulf States south- 
ward, and westward to the region beyond the Missouri River, which 
comprises the major portion of the Carolinian and Austroriparian 
areas of the Upper and Lower Austral life zones and a portion also of 
the Transition zone. Injury has been observed to be particularly 
severe in recent years on Long Island and in New Jersey, Delaware, 
Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, in the East, and in 
Kansas and Nebraska in the West. Other States in which injury 
has been noted include Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode 
Island, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Iowa, and Michi- 
gan. It is evidently of tropical origin, and occurs in Mexico, where 
it is also widely distributed, and in Guatemala, Panama, Venezuela, 
Argentina, and the Lower Amazon. 
FOOD HABITS. 
The vines of squash and pumpkin form the chief food supply of 
this insect, but occasionally it attacks also the gourd, muskmelon, and 
cucumber. It does not, however, in the writer’s experience, infest 
melons and cucumbers when the other preferred crops are available. 
The larve bore through the stems from the roots to the base of and 
[Cir. 38] 
