THE RED-STRIPED CRANBERRY WORM. 33 
worm, and of an insect eating the runners of the vines. The roots of 
the cranberries are exceedingly numerous and fine, and it seems scarcely 
possible that an insect, living in the roots, as it is claimed this does, 
should exist and do serious injury. Captain Ames, of Cotuit, has heard 
of this insect, and showed me places on his bog said to be caused by it. 
Careful examination revealed nothing. The insect said to injure the 
runners leaves traces of its work, but the insect itself seems very diffi- 
cult to find. A cranberry plant will send off runners in every direction ; 
the runners send out uprights which bear the fruit; the runners lie on 
the surface of the ground, and when a bog is resanded, or before, take 
root at intervals, though sometimes a runner will maintain six or more 
uprights from the main root. It is the bark of these runners that is 
eaten off at the under side; never much, but a little bite here and an- 
other little bite there ; the runner loses vitality, the uprights die, and 
the infested space becomes brown and dry. This gradually spreads, 
though as yet no very great damage has been done. [examined several 
of these spaces and on every one of them I found the same appearance, 
¢. é., dead vines, and on the runners a few small patches deprived of 
bark; this, Captain Ames says, is sufficient to destroy a vine. One or 
two of these barkings appearing tolerably fresh, [made a close search for 
insects without any success; the only living thing found was a centiped. 
Captain Ames says that he has seen the depredator, and he is the only 
one whom I could find that had. He says it is an active, brown insect 
-with many legs and some hair-like appendages at the sides. He says 
he has seen them early in the season and again late in the season, but 
never at the time I saw him, 7. e., August 9. I requested him to look 
out for the next appearance of the insect and to send me specimens, but 
I have not thus far heard from him, though he promised to comply 
with my request. The insect has received the name of “ girdle worm ” 
among Cape Cod growers. 
I have found a few other insects on the bogs, some Hemiptera homo- 
ptera and some Hemiptera heteroptera, but they ave not cranberry feeders. 
They live on the weeds and grasses found on neglected bogs, and the 
more neglected a bog is, the greater the variety and number of small 
insects that are found on it. I have no doubt but that most of these 
insects do occasionally attack the cranberry, but I am equally certain 
that, except the mosquito, they would not be on the bog were the weeds 
not there. 
8993—Bul. 4——3 
