REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 175 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



the last two weeks. The effects of the worm are not so noticeable as they were a little 

 while ago.' — G. W. Eiseborough. 



* Mount Brydges, Ont., June 30. — I send you specimens of a grub which is playing 

 havoc with the potato and the tomato crop. They bore into the stalk and eat the heart 

 out. I have taken dozens of them out of potato and tomato plants and of course the 

 plant is done when the trouble is noticed.' — W. B. Dunn, 



It is very seldom' that a remedy is required for stalk borers in Canada- The num- 

 ber of specimens which occur in any one locality is, as a rule, small, and no remedies 

 need to be applied. Whenever an injured plant is noticed, the borer should be sought 

 for and destroyed; but I know of no treatment by which their outbreaks could be pre- 

 vented. The presence of the larvaa in many kinds of weeds points to the advantage of 

 keeping down all such useless and unnecessary vegetation. 



The Corn Worm (Heliothis ohscura, Fab., =H. armiger, Hbn.). — This insect' 

 \'i'hich always occurs in Canada in an irregular manner did no harm in the eastern 

 provinces and in Ontario, but for the first time was complained of from Manitoba. 

 The species was known to occur in the prairie provinces from moths which had been 

 collected, but up to the present so little sweet com has been grown for table use that 

 no one had noticed its injury before this year. The first mention came to me through 

 the Nor-west Farmer, early in September. The samples sent were grown by Mr. Neil 

 Bayne, at Pipestone, Man., who sent several ears injured in the ordinary way, and 

 also some of the caterpillars at work in them. Both the green and the brown 

 colour varieties were represented. The brown were stated to have been much more 

 abundant in the early ears of com, to which they had done a great deal of damage. The 

 attack came to an end about September 20. 



Under date September 11. Mr. W. C. Hall, wrote from Headingly, Man. : — ' I 

 send an ear of sweet corn (Cory) and shall be obliged if you can let me know what 

 grub this is, which is infesting a great part of the com this year for the first time. 

 Many ears are destroyed, the injury begins at the top.' 



The most westerly occurrence was at Fairy Hill, Sask., from which place Mr. 

 Robert Mollard writes : ' Sept. 4. — Inclosed you will find a cob of com eaten by a grub, 

 which is also in its place in the cob. This is the first year I ever saw com affected in 

 this way, and most of the cobs are similarly affected.' 



It is only recently that the farmers on our prairies have discovered that they can 

 grow excellent sweet corn for table use, and it will be most unfortunate if this trouble- 

 some pest should develop in such numbers as to induce growers to give up the culture 

 of such a popular and wholesome vegetable. 



The remedies which have been recommended, are the hand-picking and destruction 

 of the caterpillars as soon as their presence is detected by the premature discoloration 

 of the silk. It is also claimed that many moths may be taken at night in lantern traps 

 consisting of a lighted lantern placed in an open pan containing water with a little 

 coal oil on the top of it. When a crop ia known to have been attacked by the Corn 

 Worm, the old stems should be removed from the field as soon as the crop is gathered, 

 and the land ploughed deeply in autumn so as to break up the cocoons and expose the 

 pupse to the weather and their various enemies among the small birds and mammals. 



The Variegated Cutworm (Peridroma saucia, Hbn.). — In 1900 this large and late 

 occurring species of cutworm did a great deal of harm to all kinds of vegetation on the 

 Pacific coast, extending from Northern British Columbia as far south as Oregon. 

 Very little injury has been recorded against it since that time; but during the past 

 summer the caterpillars were found in noticeable numbers at several places in Brit'^.h 

 Columbia, reports having been received from Mr. J. W. Coclile, of Kaslo, Mr. W. A. 

 Dashwood-Jones, of New Westminster, Mr. E- V. Harvey, of Vancouver, and from Mr. 

 J. R. Anderson, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture of British Columbia, who writes 

 under date July 26 : — ' I regret to say that Peridroma saucia is again bad this year. 



