64 



NATURAL ENEMIES. 



The habit of this larva of crawling distances in exposed situations, 

 as, for example, across roads and sidewalks, together with its briglit 

 and conspicuous colors and large size, would seem to render it 

 peculiarly subject to the attack of natural enemies, but as yet only one 

 of these has been observed. 



There is in the National Museum a specimen of the larva which 

 bears upon the thoracic segments eggs of a Tachina Hy, deposited in 

 the usual manner transversely upon the dorsum. The adult was not 

 reared, and no Tachina fly appears to be recorded as attacking this or 

 other species of the genus. 



Several times during rearing experiments lai'vie that had just been 

 taken from the held were observed to be dying of a fungous or bac- 

 terial disease, evidently the same one that is so prevalent with Plusia 

 h'assicce, the cabbage looper, and similar species. 



REMEDIES. 



It has been reported ])y Mr. Quaintance (1. c.) that this species was 

 successfully treated at the Florida experiment station with a spray of 

 1 ounce of Paris green to 10 gallons of water, with the addition of 

 1 or 2 ounces of quicklime. 



Other remedies, such as poisoned baits and the like, are valuable. 

 See account of variegated cutworm. 



THE COTTON CUTWORM. 



{Prodenia ornithogalli Guen. ) 



The most abundant and destructive, and consequently the best 

 known, of the three species of Prodenia under discussion has been 

 called the cotton cutworm, Prodoila oniithogalU Gn. Larvas were 

 found in considerable numbers on violet at Garrett Park, Md., during 

 October, 1898, and were taken at intervals, although in much decreased 

 numbers, during the following year; but in li)00 larviB reappeared in 

 numbers, in some cases occurring indoors as well as in the fields. The 

 moths also returned in their customary abundance to the electric 

 lights, where in ordinary autumn weather they are among our com- 

 monest Noctuids. 



This species, like the preceding, is a general feeder, and has been 

 noted to attack cotton bolls and the fruit of tomato in the same man- 

 ner as does the cotton boll worm. In short, it has what is termed 

 the boll-worm habit. 



DESCRIPTIVE. 



The moth. — The moth of this species can readily be distinguished 

 from commelinm by the much more complicated pattern of the fore- 



