64 SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OP 



(Fig. 37, <\) is dark brown, variegated with paler brown as in the fig- 

 ure, while the spines around the edges are transparent and white. 



THE PICKLE WQBM—PhaeeUura nitidqilis^ Cramer. 



(Lepidoptera, Margarodiduc.) 



As long ago as the year 1828, Dr. T. W. Harris described and 

 named the common Squash Borer {JEgeria [Trocft ilium] cucurbitce). 

 This borer is a true caterpillar, having sixteen legs, and very much 

 resembling the common Peach Borer. It is hatched in the early part 

 of summer, from eggs placed by the parent moth on the stems of the 

 vine, close to the root. It penetrates the stem, and by devouring the 

 pith, frequently causes the death of the vine. When full fed it re- 

 treats a short distance into the ground and forms a cocoon of a gummy 

 substance covered with particles of earth. Within this cocoon it 

 passes the winter, and early the next summer issues as a moth. This 

 moth is very beautiful, with a conspicuous orange-colored body spot- 

 ted with black ; with the front wings blue-black and with the hind 

 wings perfectly transparent. 



Ever since the day when it was first described by Harris, this in- 

 sect has been known as the Squash Borer. It seems to be confined, 

 however, to a few of the more Eastern States, and although Mr. Wm. 

 Klussman, of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, thinks he is troubled with this 

 species, and has given up the growing of all winter squashes in con- 

 sequence of its ravages ( Country Gentleman, Nov. 11, 1869, page 378), 

 yet it certainly is not of common occurrence in the Valley of the Mis- 

 sissippi, or we should more often hear of it. 



There is, however, another borer which attacks the rools of cu- 

 curbitaceous vines, and which is but too common all over the coun- 

 try. 1 refer to that ubiquitous little pest the Striped Cucumber-beetle 

 (Diabrotica vittata, Fabr.) an insect which annually destroys thou- 

 sands of dollars' worth of vines in the United States, and for which 

 remedies innumerable — some sensible, but the greater portion not 

 worth the paper on which they are printed — are published every year 

 in our different agricultural papers. 



The natural history of this " Striped Bug," as it is more commonly 

 called, was first made known in the West by Dr. Henry Shinier, of Mt. 

 Carroll, in the Prairie Farmer, for August 12, 1865. But as every- 

 thing pertaining to such a very common and destructive insect, can- 

 not be too often repeated, I will here relate its habits in the briefest 

 manner. 



The parent beetles (Fig. 39) make their appearance quite early 

 [Fig. 39] i n the season, when they immediately commence their work 

 of destruction. They frequently penetrate through the cracks 

 that are made by the swelling and sprouting of the seeds of 

 melons, cucumbers, or squashes, and by nipping off theyoimg 

 sprouts, destroy the plant before it is even out of the ground. 



