116 



AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



or eaten out by the codling moth, ( Carpocapsaimmonella,) or other insects, 

 where they merely accelerate the decay of fruit already previously in- 

 jured. In*^Earope the larvfe of other species, Sciara fucata, and quin- 

 que macxdata^ live in putrid or decaying turnips, &c., and have been 

 accused of producing the disease in potatoes commonly known as the 

 "scab." Sciara pyri is said to deposit its eggs in the yet unfolded 

 X^ear-blossoms, the larvas of which, when hatched, work themselves down 

 to the core, causing the young and yet undeveloped fruit to wither and 

 fall to the ground. 



The species found in Virginia probably does no injury to cultivated 

 X)lants, but feeds on putrid vegetable substances, under bark of trees, 

 moss, or stones, and in decaying fungi, as a very similar larva not yet 

 developed into the perfect fly has lately been taken near Washington, 

 feeding by hundreds on the under side of a species of fungus or agaricus, 

 (allied to Amanita muscaria,) which was completely riddled and destroyed 

 by them. If this is the case in one instance, m^y it not be probable 

 that these larv?e, when in such multitudes as to entirely destroy the 

 fungi upon which the eggs were deposited and the young larvse had 

 previously existed, may find it necessary to emigrate in swarms in search 

 of fresh fungi to feed upon 1 



In regard to this singular worm Mr. M. H. Spera, a few months later, 

 wrote, from Ephratah, Pennsylvania, as follows : " During the past 

 summer I found several of these ' snakes,' one of them, when found, 

 measuring 18 inches in length, and numbering 497 worms, some being 

 .30 of an inch in length. It was moving rapidly. Several days after, I 

 found another, not as large as the former, containing 364 worms. Of 

 these I secured a number, placing them in a glass box, in which I also 

 placed damp earth and moss. When I placed them in the box, about 3 

 p. m., they would crawl on the glass, but by next morning they had all 

 disappeared beneath the earth and moss. The perfect flies appeared on 

 the afternoon of the fifth day, and on the sixth and seventh, their 

 description perfectly agreeing with that given in the monthly report. 

 The first was found on the 27th of July, the second several days after." 



A letter has been received from a correspondent in Louisiana, com- 

 plaining of the injury done to the truck-farmers by a large grasshopper, 

 which, from his description, appears to be the Bomalea microptera (of 

 ServiUe,) or the Gryllus centurio of Burmeister. He states that the 

 insect has been known for forty years, appearing in May along the 

 South Atlantic and Gulf coast. *' Heretofore," he says, " it has been 

 comparatively harmless, but this year it was very injurious to melons 



Fig. 6, 



and vegetables ; it also climbed peach and fig trees to devour the fruit j 

 it cannot fly, as its wings are too short." 



