96 FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF 



bacco-worm moth (Sphinx Carolina, Linnaeus), which indeed it very 

 closely resembles, having the same series of orange colored spots on 

 each side of the abdomen. The gray and black markings, however, of 

 the wings diiFer perceptibly in the two species; and in the Tobacco- 

 worm moth there is always a more or less faint white spot or dot near 

 the centre of the front wing, which is never met within the other spe- 

 cies. In Connecticut and other northern States where tobacco is grown, 

 the Potato-worm often feeds upon the leaves of the tobacco plant, the 

 true Tobacco-worm being unknown in those latitudes. In the more 

 southerly States, on the other hand, and in Mexico and in the West 

 Indies, the true Potato-worm is unknown, and it is the Tobacco-worm 

 Hat the tobacco growers have to fight. While in the intermediate 

 country both species may frequently be captured on the wing in the 

 same garden and upon the same evening. In other words, the Potato- 

 worm is a northern species, the Tobacco-worm a southern species ; 

 but on the confines of the two districts exclusively inhabited by each, 

 they intermingle in varying proportions, according to the latitude. 



Remedies. — This insect is so large and conspicuous that the most 

 effectual mode of destroying it is by hand-picking. In destroying the 

 worms in this manner care should be taken to leave alone all those 

 specimens which one finds covered with little white oval cocoons, as 

 these are the cocoons of little parasites* which materially assist us in 

 its subjugation. 



THE STRIPED BLISTER-BEETLE— Lytta vittata, Fair. 

 (Coleoptera Meloidse.) 



The three insects figured and described above infest the potato 

 plant in the larva state only, the two first of them burrowing inter- 

 nally in the stalk or stem, the third feeding upon its leaves externally. 

 Of these three the first and third are moths or scaly-winged insects 

 (order Lepidoptera), so called because the wings of all the insects 

 belonging to this large group are covered with'minute variously-col- 

 ored scales, which, on the slightest touch, rub off and rob the wing of 

 all its brilliant coloring. The second of the three, as well as the next 

 four foes of the potato, which I shall notice, are all of them beetles 

 or shelly-winged insects (order Coleoptera), so called because what 

 would normally be the front wing is transformed here into a more or 

 less hard and shelly wing-case, which, instead ot being used as an or- 

 gan of flight, is employed merely to protect and cover the hind wings 

 in repose. To look at any beetle, indeed, almost any inexperienced 

 person would suppose that it has got no wings at all ; but in reality 

 nearly all beetles have full sized wings snugly folded up under their 

 wing-cases, and, whenever they choose it, can fly with the greatest 



* There are two distinct parasites n li ;h attack this worm, both species being yery much of a 

 size. One issues from the w irm an 1 spina a smooth white silken cocoon which it fastens >y ne en d 

 to the skin of the worm, and in due time produces ;i fly which Mr. Norton informs me is i n unde- 

 acribod species of Blacus, West. (Braconides polymo phi). The other species forms an i nmense inasi 

 of loose woolly cocoons and produces an apparently undescribed species of Microgaster. 



