THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 43 



The same writer adds that " in 1781, eleven years after, the same 

 kind of worm appeared again, and the fears of the people were greatly- 

 excited, but this time they were few in number." 



In 1790 their ravages are again recorded in Connecticut, where 

 they were very destructive to the grass and corn, but their existence 

 was short, all dying in a few weeks (Webster on Pestilence, I, 272.) 



Their next appearance in the Eastern States was in 1817, after an 

 interval of twenty-seven years, according to Fitch, who quotes the 

 following paragraph from the Albany (N. Y.) Argus : 



Worcester, Mass., May 22nd, 1817.— "We learn that the black 

 worm is making great ravages on some farms in this town, and in 

 many other places in this part of the country. Their march is a 'dis- 

 played column,' and their progress is as distinctly marked as the 

 course of a fire which has overrun the herbage in a dry pasture. Not 

 a blade of grass is left standing in their rear. From the appearance 

 of the worm it is supposed to be the same which usually infests gar- 

 dens, and is commonly called the cut worm. * * * 

 This same worm is also destroying the vegetation in the northern 

 towns of Rensselaer and eastern section of Saratoga, New York. 

 Many meadows and pastures have been rendered by their depreda- 

 tions as barren as a heath. It appears to be the same species of worm 

 that has created so much alarm in Worcester county, but we suspect 

 it is different from the cut worm, whose ravages appear to be confined 

 to corn." 



It was not until after a lapse of forty-four years from the last 

 mentioned date, namely, in the summer of 1861, that this worm again 

 spread over the meadows and grain fields of the Eastern States. 

 During the interval, however, it had from time to time attracted at- 

 tention in the Western States, where it often proved quite destruc- 

 tive. Thus, in Illinois, it is recorded as having appeared in 1818, 1820, 

 1825, 1826, 1834, 1841, 1842, 1845 and 1856, and according to Mr. B. F. 

 Wiley, of Makanda, 111., it was quite numerous and destructive in the 

 southern part of the State in 1849, and appeared there also in 1S57, 

 though it was confined that year to limited localities.* Mr. J. 

 Kirkpatrick, of Ohio, mentions its appearance in the northern part of 

 that State in 1855. He says : " Last season (1855), in consequence of 

 the heavy rains in the early part of June, the flats of the Cuyahoga, 

 near Cleveland, were flooded. After the subsidence of the water, 

 and while the grass was yet coated with the muddy deposit, myriads 

 of small blackish caterpillars appeared ; almost every blade had its 

 inhabitant; no animal could feed upon it without, at every bite, 

 swallowing several ; if a new blade sprung up, it was immediately 

 devoured, but what was most remarkable, the insects did not attempt 

 to remove to land a foot or two higher but that had not been covered 

 by the water."f 



-''Prairie Farmer, July 18th, 1861. 

 fOhio Agricultural Report, 1855, p. 350. 



