REPORT OF THE SOCIETY 77 



Comparatively few of our species are of economic importance, though 

 these under proper climatic conditions possess a capacity for causing almost 

 total loss of our hay crop. The larvae of vulvivagellus and trisectus, in 1881, 

 so devastated the field of St. Lawrence County, N.Y., that the loss resembled 

 that due to an invasion of the army worm, and such indeed it was reported to 

 Dr. Lintner. Zeelus and caliginosellus have from time to time caused great 

 damage to the corn in various States, and the late S. H. Scudder, under the 

 title of the "Cranberry Girdler," reported in "Insect Life" the ravages of 

 hortuellus on the young runners of the cranberry vines in the marshes 

 around Plymouth, Mass. 



Many preventive measures have been suggested. The use of torches 

 and trap-lanterns does not seem to have met with much success, all records 

 show that comparatively few females of the most destructive species are 

 taken at night. Deep ploughing and a change to a root crop should lessen the 

 nunbers in fields where a species has become firmly established. The first 

 year after the campus at Loyola was seeded very few Crambids were seen 

 on it, although the neighboring fields and lots were alive with them. Burn- 

 ing the dried grass in the late fall or early spring destroys those larvae which 

 hibernate above ground, but unfortunately most of the larvae enter the 

 ground to pass the winter. 



Of the natural enemies an Ichneumon, a Tachina, and a Chalcid destroy 

 great numbers, and insectivorous birds and predaceous beetles account for 

 even greater numbers. But to an All-seeing Providenc e who dispenses the 

 seasonable and unseasonable weather, must be given our thanks for pro- 

 tecting us from a serious invasion of these ever present pests. 



References 



Barnes and McDonnough — Check List of Lept. of Bor. Amer. 1917. 



E. P. Felt — On Certain Grass Eating Insects. Bull. 64. Cornell, 894. _ 



C. H. Fernald — Crambidae of N.A. Mass. Agr. Coll. 1896. 



A. S. Forbes— 14th Report of 111. 1895 



W. S. Kearfoot — Desc. n.sp. Cram, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. vol. XXXV 



1908. 

 Grote — Can. Ent. vols. IX, XII and XI 1 1. 

 Lintner— Inj. Ins. N.Y. 1882. 

 Insect Life — Vols. VI and VII. 

 A. F. Winn— Prelim. List Lept. of Que. 1912. 



