_ REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. = ~ 155 
~ of May, and came up immediately and looked very nice, but it was taken in about 
_ “two days,so that the field looked perfectly bare. We replanted on May 21. The 
-. corn came up very nice again; we have harrowed it and plowed once, but there 
~ will not be a hillim the field to-morrow night that will not be partially or wholly 
-_ destroyed.' This certainly can not be the same worm that is troubling Mr. Barnes, 
as they have been in my corn for three weeks, and I can not see any change in 
__ their appearance. As it is now too late to try corn again would it be safe to sow 
_ corn for fodder? The hay crop in this (Winneshiek) county is a failure, and this 
_— piece of ground has got to producesomething. It wasseeded to timothy and clover 
_ three years ago and has been used for hog pasture since that time. Inclosed find 
_ bottle containing specimens. Will be short of feed next winter and any advice or 
suggestion will be thankfully received. 
gui Respectfully, 
A. W. OXLEY. 
To this I replied advising to put in corn and stating my belief that the adults 
were already issuing from the chrysalis state. * 
‘Early in June I had noticed the striped ground-squirrels on the college lawn dig-. 
ging into the turf and eating something which they withdrew. Examining the 
‘places thus dug up I always found the peculiar cocoon of a Crambus, and the place 
“would also show the deserted web and burrow of the larva. These squirrels’ bur- 
rows were very numerous in some parts of the lawn, and in one place I counted 
twenty-five in the space of a square yard, indicating that the ground-squirrel has dis- 
posed of that many larvze or pupz of. Crambus within the given area. At another 
time I counted fifty to a square yard. Evidently when sod-worms are plenty the 
ground-squirrel is not an unmixed evil. 
. I did not at first connect these worms with the ones referred to by Mr. Barnes, 
- but comparisons of specimens of larvze found in sod here with the imperfect speci- 
* mens sent by Mr. Barnes, and later with those from Mr. Oxley, satisfied me that 
they were very probably identical. Subsequent observations made this almost a 
_ certainty. I have therefore dealt with them as belonging to the same species. 
_ Evidently we must consider it under the double role of a grass pest and a corn 
pest, and while it certainly causes in the aggregate vastly more damage to grass 
_ than to corn its work is more noticeable on the latter crop, since it so completely 
destroys fields planted upon sod infested by the young worms. 
Since this insect has assumed so great an importance to two staple crops, and as 
its life history and habits have been but partially recorded, I have devoted as much 
time as possible to a study of it the present season and will give the result of my 
studies in detail. : 
Its distribution and injury so far as the corn crop is concerned may be gleaned in 
_ part from the Iowa crop report, which has kindly been placed at my disposal by the 
secretary of the State Agricultural Society, Hon. J. R. Shaffer. Aside from the 
_ localities given in the following list there was considerable damage in this (Story) 
- county, and, as stated by Mr. Oxley, in Winneshiek County. 
Extracts from crop report. 
BREMER CouNTY.—Corn on old ground injured by a small green worm. 
CLINTON CountTy.—Cut-worms injured corn on timothy sod and old pastures. 
Davis County.—Corn on sod and fallow ground has been destroyed by Web-— 
worms. 
Fayette County.—Corn looking well, notwithstanding the severe drought; 
some planted on timothy sod injured by Cut-worms, but general stand good. 
Henry County.—Meadow-worms working at the roots of grass. 
VAN BuREN County.—A worm resembling the Cut-worm has done serious dam- 
age to corn; it built a web in the hill and would eat whole fields planted on new 
‘ground. 
JOHNSON CounTy.—Cut-worms destroyed 25 per cent. of fhe corn planted on sod. 
JONES CouNTY.—Corn two weeks ahead of last year. That replanted on account 
of Cut-worms is gaining on the other. 
*In answer to further inquiries as to results in these fields Mr. Barnes informs 
me that the replanted corn was not materially injured by the worms, and that 
taking drought and Chinch Bugs into account preduced a very fair crop. He 
further says that the portion of his field most damaged was the part plowed in. 
spring. Mr. Oxley states that the worms took three plantings for him, but that he 
then planted to fodder-corn and raised a most excellent crop: he says worms worked 
in this a little at first, he thinks as late as June 27, but did no serious damage. 
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