112 



column is wide, and in it we can usually write all necessary informa- 

 tion which we received in the collecting. If we are experimenting with 

 or studying the insect our notes are kept on cards. These are num- 

 bered to agree with accession catalogue and are kept in serial order 

 until we know the species, when we add species number as well. We 

 now index the card and place it in its correct alphabetical position in 

 our card collection. Thus we can very easily find our notes on any 

 specimen, either by accessiou number or by the name of the species. 

 This plan works well, and it seems to me is very economical in respect 

 to time. Of course our students all see this scheme and become famil- 

 iar with its workings. 



ARMY WORM NOTES. 



By F. M. Wecstek. 



The season of 1890 was not noted in Indiana for any considerable ap- 

 pearance of this pest, except in the extreme southern portion of the 

 State. In Point Township, Posey County, a very serious invanion oc- 

 curred on the farm of Mr. F. W. Nolte, wbereby 130 acres of promising 

 meadow was totally destroyed, not a pound of hay being obtained from 

 the entire area. This meadow and adjacent cultivated lands were sit- 

 uated on second bottom of the Ohio River, and all were overflowed dur- 

 ing March, the overflow remaining long enough to destroy the young 

 wheat. 



Very small, young worms were noticed in great numbers in the 

 meadow on May 2, but the magnitude of the outbreak did not become 

 apparent until some days after. By June 7 the worms had done their 

 work and generally disappeared, leaving what was a few weeks before 

 a fine field of thrifty growing timothy just coming into head, as bare as 

 a stubble-field, except an occasional clump of red clover. While the 

 young worms were observed generally throughout this meadow, the 

 appearance of the place on June 14 indicated that their course had 

 invariably been fiom the Ohio River, in precisely the same direction 

 that a similar invasion is said to have taken in 1881. 



On June 14, both pupie and adults were found in considerable num- 

 bers, while parasites were literally swarming. These were chiefly Ne- 

 morcealeucanice, Sind inseveralinstancesthey were in turn being destroyed 

 by a spider, Oxyopes scalaris. The ravaged meadow was of two years' 

 standing, other fields of one year's standing, situated near by were in- 

 jured; but the destruction was not so complete, though a field of young 

 corn, situated in the path of the advancing hosts was eaten to the 

 ground. 



While there is good evidence that the adult moths may oviposit in 

 fields of small grain in si)ring, the fact of their ovipositing in fields of 

 young corn seems not to have been recorded. From the Ith to 28th of 



