THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 93 



usual, and was particularly abundant along the Iron Mountain and 

 Pacific roads. 



Never having found this worm earlier than June and July, nor 

 obtained the moth from the very earliest matured ones, till the latter 

 part of August and fore part of September, this insect must necessa- 

 rily be single brooded, the egg requiring longer to hatch, and the lar- 

 va longer to develop than of many other moths. Leaving the stalk 

 in which they have burrowed the latter part of July, they descend a 

 litte below the surface of the ground and in three days become chrys- 

 alids. These are of the normal form, with two fine bristles at the ex- 

 tremity of the body, usually closed so as to form a point, but readi- 

 ly opened V-shaped at the will of the insect, as with hundreds of 

 others of the same class. I have had the moths issue as early as the 

 30th of August and as late as the 26th of September, and in one in- 

 stance it emerged during a freezing night, being quite dull and numb 

 at the time, thus showing beyond a doubt that the moths hybernate 

 in a state of torpor, and then deposit their eggs, singly, on the plant 

 destined for the worm, during the months of* April and May. This 

 moth (Fig, 35, 2) is of a mouse gray color with the fore wings finely 

 sprinkled with. Naples-yellow and having a very faint lilac-colored 

 hue; but distinguished mainly by an arcuated pale line running 

 across their outer third. 



Ivemedy — Prevention. — The careful florist, by an occasional close 

 inspection of his plants about the beginning of July, may detect the 

 point at which the borer entered, which is generally quite a distance 

 from the ground, and can then cut him out without injury to the 

 plant. As this is not feasible in a large potato field, care should be 

 taken to prevent his attacks another year as far as it is possible to do 

 so, by hunting for him wherever a vine is seen to suddenly wilt. 



THE POTATO STALK-WEEVIL— Baridius trinotatus, Saj. 

 (Coleoptera, Curculicmidse.) 



E Fi s- ?,7 -l This insect is more particularly 



a Southern species, occurring abun- 

 dantly in the Middle States, bul, ac- 

 cording to Dr. Harris, being totally 

 unknown in New England. I found 

 it in our own State last summer, 

 equally as abundant as the preced- 

 ing species. Indeed, some patches were utterly ruined by it, the vines 

 appearing as if scalded. The beetle (Fig 37 c) is of a bluish or ash- 

 gray color, distinguished, as its name implies, by having three shiny 

 black impressed spots at the lower edge of the thorax. The female 

 deposits a single egg in an oblong slit about one-eighth inch long, 

 which she has previously formed with her beak in the stalk of the 

 potato. The larva subsequently hatches out, and bores into the heart 

 of the stalk, always, proceeding downwards towards the root, When 



