REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 265 



THE CxARDE^iT WEB-WOEM. 



{Eurycreon rantalis, Guen.) 



Order LepidopteeA; Family Pyealidje. 



[Plate YI; Fig. 3.] 



Perhaps tlie most marked insect outbreak of tlie year lias been the 

 appearance of Euycrcon ranialis over a large area in the five States of 

 Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Xebraska, and Arkansas, and also in tlie In- 

 dian Territory. It has attracted a great deal of attention, and the dam- 

 age done has been very great. The princii^al crop to suffer Tvas corn, 

 and a replanting vras necessitated in many instances. The general corn 

 crop for the year, as statistics show, has been larger than ever before, the 

 acreage having been widely extended ; but the yield per acre in the States 

 named was reduced, owing, largely, to the operations of this insect. 



Eurycreon rantaUs is quite a wide-spread species, occurring all over 

 the United States. It has been captured in South America, and the 

 original description of the species was from a specimen from Monte- 

 video. It is also a very variable species, and has been variously de- 

 scribed under the names of crinisaJis by Walker,* of coiuinunis by 

 Grote,t and of occiflcniaUs by Packard.| It is referred to the genus 

 yympliula by Guenee, and Scopula hj Walker, but jjroperly belongs to 

 Lederer's more restricted genus Eurycreon. 



The moth (Plate YI, Fig. 3) has an average expanse of IS™™. The 

 general color is either orange or reddish-yellow inclining to birff, or more 

 commonly a lighter or darker shade of gray, having, in certain lights, 

 either a copperish or greenish reflection very similar to that on the well- 

 known Cotton Worm Moth {Aletm xylina). The characteristic markings, 

 as shown in the figure, are the darker reniform and orbicular spots 

 with a paler shade between them ; two irregular transverse pale lines, 

 generally relieved by darker shade, most intense posteriorly on the an- 

 terior line and basally or interiorly on the posterior line. The terminal 

 space may be either paler or darker than the ground color. The mark- 

 ings are very variable, however, dark specimens {ranialis) having them 

 all well defined, paler specimens {communis) less so, while in others 

 {crinisalis [crinitalis, Led.]) the anterior line and inner portion of pos- 

 terior line may be lacking. Dasconalis, Walker, is probably but a dark 

 specimen and should be added to the synonymy. 



Tlie larva, which seems to have been unknown prior to 1873, when wo 

 made manuscript notes and descriptions of it, is also somewhat varia- 

 ble in color, being either pale or dark-yellow or even greenish-yellow. 

 It is marked with rather distinct jet-black pilifcrous spots, as illustrated 

 in the figure. In the better-marked specimens there is a quite distinct 

 pale double line alor.g the middle of the back and a single one at the 

 lower side. The pililerous spots are also more or less distinctly re- 

 lieved by a pale border. 



The pupa (PI. YI, Fig. 3 d) is of the normal brown color and charac- 

 terized by the tip of the body having two i^romiuences, each furnished 

 with three stout short spines. 



* List of Lep. Ins. in Brit. Mns., p.irt xviii, Pyralides, p. 798 (1859). 

 t Canadian Entomologist, vol. viii. ]>. 99, May, 1876. 

 tAnn. Lye. Nat. Hist., 1873, p. 2G1. 



