184 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



hibernate in the woods and in any number 

 of other places where they cannot be 

 destroyed by fire. Dry lime and hellebore, 

 which may be used to advantage against 

 the larvae, have proved useless against the 

 beetle, while lye and soapsuds cannot be 

 used strong enough to kill it without inju- 

 rious effects upon the plant. Tin pans or 

 pails with some liquid at the bottom have 

 been used to advantage for collecting the 

 early beetles, which could be knocked into 

 them, and we have repeatedly advised for 

 this and other insects like the Grapevine 

 Fidia, which fall to the ground upon dis- 

 turbance, the use of sheets along the trellis 

 to catch them. Unless repeatedly shaken 

 from such sheets into vessels containing 

 liquid, the beetles will of course soon 

 escape. 



The wonderful efficacy of kerosene in 

 destroying insect life has long been known. 

 It was used three years ago with excellent 

 effect in shallow tin pans, or on stretched 

 sheets of cloth, for the destructive locust 

 of the West, and we strongly recommended 

 its use in a similar manner for the destruc- 

 tion of the Cotton Worm, when brushed off 

 from the plants.* 



Mr. L. O. Howard, Assistant Etomolo- 

 gist to the Department of Agriculture, last 

 spring employed it successfully on sheets 

 against the Grapevine Flea-Beetle, finding 

 it so satisfactory that he did not hesitate to 

 recommend it in the following terms : 



"Take two pieces of common cotton sheeting, 

 each being two yards long and half as wide ; 

 fasten sticks across the ends of each piece to keep 

 the cloth open, and then drench with kerosene. 

 Give the slieets thus prepared to two persons, 

 each having hold of the rods at opposite ends of 

 the sheets. Then let these persons pass one 

 sheet on either side of the vine, being careful to 

 unite the cloth around the base of the vine ; then 

 let a third person give the stake to which the vine 

 is attached a sharp blow with a heavy stick. 

 Such a blow will in nearly every case jar the 

 beetles into the sheets, where the kerosene kills 

 them almost instantly. 



"This process, after a little e.\perience, can be 

 performed almost as rapidly as the persons em- 

 ployed can walk from one vine to another. The 

 expense necessary is very trifling, and boys can 

 do the work quite as well as men. Warm bright 

 afternoons are the proper times for this work to 

 be done, and it should be performed faithfully 

 every sunny day until the vines are out of dan- 

 ger." — N. Y. W. Times, May 5, 1880. 



* Bull. No. 3, U. S. E. C.,p. 54. 



Until something is discovered, which, 

 blown or syringed on the buds, will keep 

 off the beetles, this method of Mr. Howard's 

 of dealing with the insect, will remain the 

 best yet known. 



FURTHER NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE 

 ARMY WORM.* 



The appearance of this insect in the 

 Atlantic States this year has been marked 

 by several peculiar conditions, and further 

 study of its habits has revealed some new 

 points which enable us to recast the theo- 

 ries which have been proposed in explana- 

 tion of the phenomena connected with it. 



NUMBER OF ANNUAL GENERATIONS. 



From the time Fitch wrote so fully on 

 the species in i86r, until the record of our 

 observations in 1875 and 1876, it was the 

 prevailing belief among entomologists that 

 there was but one annual brood of the spe- 

 cies, especially in the Northern States, no 

 absolute evidence of a second brood hav- 

 ing been obtained. Our experiments that 

 year proved conclusively that there were 

 always two and sometimes three genera- 

 tions in the latitude of St. Louis. The 

 facts that we also recorded as to the re- 

 markably rapid development of the worm, 

 /. e. that it can reach full growth within a 

 fortnight after hatching, lent favor to the 

 idea, in our mind, that there might be even 

 more generations. Subsequent experience, ' 

 and especially that of the present year, has 

 convinced us that there is usually one other 

 generation there, and it is but natural, to 

 suppose that there are still more in more 

 southern latitudes. The moths are to be 

 found laying their eggs as soon as vegeta- 

 tion starts in the Spring, and there is a suc- 

 cession of broods from that time till winter 

 sets in ; the number differing according to 

 latitude and the length of the growing sea- 

 son. Thus, Prof. Comstock reports it as 

 having been received at the Department of 

 Agriculture, in the larva state, during every 

 month of the past winter, from the Southern 

 States where, during the mild weather, it 



* Adapted from an article by C, V. Riley in the Scientific 

 American. 



