THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 47 



come in for their share of this dainty food ; while the worms, when 

 hard pushed, will even devour each other. 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE ARMY-WORM. 



Previous to the year 1861, but very little accurate knowledge had 

 been acquired respecting the habits of the Army-worm, and nothing 

 whatever of a scientific nature had been published. 



A few very observing farmers ventured to predict its appearance 

 during very wet summers succeeding very dry ones. They did not 

 know why this was the case, but it was a fact that they had learned 

 from experience. It was also known that the worm attacked only 

 the grasses and cereals, that it was gregarious in its habits, and that 

 it disappeared suddenly, in a manner as seemingly mysterious as that 

 in which its advent was supposed to have been made. 



These few facts were about the only ones of real value, respecting 

 the habits of this insect, that could be gleaned from the statements 

 of those who had suffered most from its ravages; while the subject 

 seems to have been, up to that time, entirely ignored by entomologi- 

 cal writers. 



In 1861, however, its very general appearance, and the vast 

 amount of damage it did, attracted the attention, not only of farmers, 

 bat of several well-known entomologists, among whom may be men- 

 tioned our late friends, Walsh, of Illinois, and Kirkpatrick, of Ohio ; 

 and Cyrus Thomas, of Illinois, Dr. Fitch, of New York, and J. II. 

 Klippart, of Ohio. 



As might have been expected, diverse conclusions were arrived 

 at, and various theories entertained by these writers, and some very 

 spirited correspondence between Messrs. Walsh and Thomas and 

 Walsh and Klippart may be found in old files of "both the Ohio Farmer 

 and the Prairie Farmer. 



The principal point of dispute was, whether the Army-worm win- 

 tered in the egg or chrysalis state, and, as a consequence, whether it 

 was single or double-brooded. 



It is needless to follow these gentlemen in their discussions, which 

 were frequently caustic and pungent ; but sometimes partook more 

 of the character of personal wrangling than of a calm and conscien- 

 tious search after truth. Two of the five parties mentioned above, 

 are now in their graves, and while one of those yet living — Mr. Cyrus 

 Thomas — believed in the two-brooded character of the insect; the 

 other two evade the question entirely. Mr. Walsh took the ground 

 that it was single-brooded, and the experience of the past year has 

 • convinced me that he was correct. 



The Army-worm, like all other insects, hatches from an egg, and 

 this egg is evidently deposited by the parent moth at the base of 

 perennial grass-stalks. In Southern Missouri it hatches out about 

 the middle of April ; in the central part of the State about the first, 

 and in the northern part about the middle of May; in Massachusetts, 



