68 SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OP 



large amount of soft excrement. I have found as many as four in a 

 medium-sized cucumber, and a single worm will often cause the fruit 

 to rot. They develop very rapidly and come to their growth in from 

 three to four weeks. When about to transform they forsake the fruit 

 in which they had burrowed, and drawing together portions of some 

 leaf that lies on or near the ground, spin a slight cocoon of white silk. 

 Within this cocoon they soon become slender brown chrysalids with 

 the head parts prolonged, and with a very long ventral sheath which 

 encloses the legs. If it is not too late in the season the moths issue 

 in from eight to ten days afterwards. The late individuals, however, 

 pass the winter within their cocoons; though, from the fact that some 

 moths come out as late as November, I infer that they may also win- 

 ter over in the moth state. 



The moth produced by this worm (of which Figure 43, i, repre- 

 sents the male) is very strikingly marked. It is of a yellowish-brown 

 color, with an iris-purple reflection, the front wings having an irregu- 

 lar, semi-transparent, dull golden-yellow spot, not reaching their 

 front edge, and constricted at their lower edge; and the hind wings 

 having their inner two-thirds of this same semi-transparent yellow. 

 The under surfaces have a more decided pearly lustre. The thighs, 

 the breast, and the abdomen below, are all of a beautiful silvery- 

 white, and the other joints of the long legs are of the same tawny or 

 golden-yellow as the semi-transparent parts of the wings. The ab- 

 domen of the female terminates in a small flattened black brush, 

 squarely trimmed, and the segment directly preceding this brush is of 

 a rust-brown color above. The corresponding segment in the male 

 is, on the contrary, whitish anteriorly and of the same color as the 

 rest of the body posteriorly, and he is, moreover, at once distinguished 

 from the female, by the immense brush at his tail, which is generally 

 much larger than represented in the above figure, and is composed of 

 narrow, lengthened (ligulate) scales, which remind one of the petals 

 of the common English daisy, some of these scales being whitish, 

 some orange, and others brown. This moth was described nearly a 

 century ago by Cramer, under the scientific name of Phal\c\ellura 

 nitidalis, and it may be known in English as the Neat Cucumber 

 Moth. The genus to which it belongs is characterized chiefly by the 

 partly transparent wings, and by the immense scaly brush of the 

 males. The antennae are long, fine and thread-like, those of the male 

 being very finely ciliated; the abdomen extends beyond the wings, 

 and the legs are very long and slender. The species are for the most 

 part exotic, and the larvae of all of them, so far as known, feed On 

 cucurbitaceous plants. 



The following item, taken from a St. Louis paper, though some- 

 what facetious, will give an idea of the extent of the injuries caused 

 by this insect in that vicinity: 



What's the matter with the cucumbers ? A lady of our acquaint- 

 ance, the other day, sent to market to purchase some cucumbers for 



