

THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 105 



This glutton is not even satisfied with ravaging these two great 

 staples of the country — cotton and corn — but, as I discovered in 1867, 

 it voraciously attacks the tomato in South Illinois, eating into the 

 green fruit, (Fig. 42), and thereby causing such fruit to rot. In this 

 [Fig. 42.] manner it often causes 



serious loss to the tomato- 

 grower, and it may justly 

 be considered the worst 

 enemy to the tomato in 

 that section of the country. 

 Mr. Glover also found it 

 feeding in a young pump- 

 kin, and it, has been ascer- 

 tained by Mrs. Mary Treat 

 of Vineland, New Jersey, 

 not only to feed upon the 

 undeveloped tassels of 

 corn and upon green peas, but to bore into the stems of the garden flower 

 known as Gladiolus, and in confinement to eat ripe tomatoes. Last 

 summer it was also found by Miss M. E. Murtfeldt in common string 

 beans, around Kirkwood, and in Europe it is recorded by M. Ch. Gou- 

 reau* as not only infesting the ears of Indian corn, but as devouring 

 the heads of hemp, and leaves of tobacco, and of lucern. The fact of 

 its attacking a kind of pea, namely, the chick-pea or coffee-pea (Cicer 

 arietinum) has also been recorded by M. J. Fallou (See Insectologie- 

 Agricole, 1869, p. 205) in certain parts of France, the young worms 

 feeding on the leaves but the larger individuals boring through the 

 pods and devouring the peas. 



Thus it seems to be almost as promiscuous in its tastes as the 

 Stalk-borer ( Gortyna nitela, Guen.), which burrows in the stalks of 

 the Potato, of the Tomato, of the Dahlia, of the Aster and other garden 

 flowers, of the common Cocklebur and of Indian corn, besides boring 

 into green corn-cobs and eating into green tomatoes and ripe straw- 

 berries, and in a single instance in Missouri eating into peach twigs, 

 and in Illinois inhabiting the twigs of the Black Currant, f 



But for the present we will consider this insect only in the two 

 roles of Boll-worm and Corn-worm, because it is as such that it inter- 

 ests the practical man most deeply. 



The egg from which the worm hatches (Fig. 43, a side view; &, 

 top view magnified) is ribbed in a somewhat similar manner to that 

 of the Cotton-worm, figured in my Second Report (p. 38) but may 

 readily be distinguished by being less flattened, and of a pale straw 

 color instead of green. It is usually deposited singly on the outside 



* Insectes Nuisibles, 2nd supplement, 1865, p. 132. 

 f See Am. Ent. I. p. 206 ; II. p. 13. 



