THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 89 



REMEDIES AGAINST CUT WORMS. 



Natural Kemedies. — These cut-worms, like all other vegetable- 

 feeding insects, have numerous insect enemies which are continually 

 on the alert for them, and materially assist us in keeping them in due 

 [Fig. 32.] bounds. Of those that are parasitic internally may be men- 

 ^— x /-—\ tioned the minute four-winged flies belonging to the genus 

 ^Sski^^Microgaster. One of these which is parasitic on the Army- 

 QsS$4S^' worm (the If. militaris of Walsh) is represented at Fig- 

 n M ure 32, and it bears a strong resemblance to anundescribed 

 species which I have often bred from a cut-worm, described 

 in the Prairie Farmer as the "Pale cut- worm." The female fly punc- 

 tures the tender skin of the worm and deposits great numbers of eggs 

 in the body. These eggs produce maggots which live upon the fatty 

 parts of the worm, and slowly but surely produce the death of their 

 victim. When full grown they pierce the skin of the worm and spin 

 their white silken cocoons, in company, on his body, and in due time 

 issue forth as flies. 



There is also a large yellowish-brown four-winged Ichneumon fly 

 (the P aniscus geminatus of Say), which I have bred from cut worms. 

 The parent fly deposits a single egg within the body of a worm, but 

 the maggot hatching from this egg does not cause the worm to die, 

 till after the latter has entered the earth to become a chrysalis. At 

 this point the worm suddenly succumbs and the maggot spins a tough, 

 black, smooth cocoon, and where we expected to see a moth rise to 

 day-light, we behold in time this Ichneumon fly. 



Among the cannibals, that bodily devour these worms, may be 

 mentioned the Spined Soldier-bug, already relerred to on page 77, note, 

 [Fig. 33.] anc [ w hose likeness I produce at Figure 33. This fellow 

 ~\/" is such a thorough cannibal, and so serviceable to 

 "^■^Lg^man, that his portrait cannot be too well graven on 

 •^E •** the mind. It is not unlikely, also, that most of the 



/W - \ ground beetles that are figured in a future chapter on 



a b the 10-lined Potato beetle, prey upon cut-worms ; and 



the Homely Geopinus referred to in the note on page 77 has been 

 found to do so, but by far the most efficient insect in slaying these 

 worms is the larva of the Fiery Ground 

 beetle (Calosoma calidum, Fabr.), which I 

 represent at Figure 34 a, by the side of its pa- 

 rent Figure 34 I. This larva has very appro- 

 priately been called the Cut-worm lion, by 

 Dr. Shinier of Mt. Carroll, Illinois, who gives 

 the following account of its mode of trans* 

 formation to the perfect beetle: "The fat, 

 full grown larva of Calosoma calidum chooses 

 hard piece of ground, as a wagon road in 

 6 the field, where it bores into to pass the pupa 



state. I have seen them many hours in boring a few inches. These 



a 



