■;{!> 



for pupation. This field had iicvci- been plowed I until the preceding fall, 

 when it was broken up for corn. 



A field of corn near Thilo, in Chainpaign county, Illinois, visited 

 June 1, 1886, was found unevenly infested ])y this insect, one j)atch of 

 about an acre being completely destroyed. This corn was on sod broken 

 April 7 and |)lante(l May 7 and 8 



July 31, 1888, blue-grass was found entir(>ly killed over lai'ge patches 

 in a lawn at Urbana, 111., by the larvse of (J. trisectus, and numerous 

 webs, some of which still contained the larva?, were exposed by clearing 

 away the dead grass on the lawns. On one of these lawns, whicli ten 

 days before had been thick and as soft as velvet, only a few small spcjts 

 of green remained. It was sijotted with tufts of dead grass pulled out 

 by the birds, many species of which were evidently feeding freely on 

 the web-worms. The larvte, all nearly or (piitc full grown, were trans- 

 forming rapidly at the date of this observation. 



June 13, 1891, caterpillars of trisectu'< and miitabUis were found 

 seriously injurious to forty acres of corn belonging to Mr. W. C. Baker, 

 near Savoy, Champaign county, Illinois. At least two thirds of the 

 first planting of the forty-acre field had been destroyed, and much of 

 the second planting also. This field had been in jjasture for eight or nine 

 years, and was plowed the [)receding fall, at just what time my infor- 

 mation does not indicate. 



Another field, of eighty acres, adjoining the foregoing, also broken 

 in fall, Imd suffered still more heavily, most of the first two plantings of 

 (orn being devoured, and about a third of the third [slanting also. The 

 caterpillars were still somewhat active June 13, but most of them had 

 ceased their feeding and deserted their webs. It is evident, conseciuently, 

 that in this case the proper time for replanting would have been about 

 June 10, and that corn planted at this time would have escaped serious 

 injury. 



In another field adjoining this, about a fifth of the rorn had been 

 destroyed on sod ground plowed in spring. This field had also been in 

 pasture for several years. 



At Knoxville and Oneida, in Knox c(nuity, Illinois, corn on sod ground 

 examined May 25, 1901, was found damaged by the larvic of trisectus 

 and vulgivagellus, associated with ordinary cutworms, to the amount of 

 twenty-five per cent.; and at Buda, in Bureau county, May 28, a field 

 was visited, from fifty to seventy-five per cent, of which had been 

 destroyed by the same web-worms and striped gophers, necessitating a 

 second planting. 



From Office Correspondence. — Tlie following reports of injuries by the 

 web-worms are from my ofiice correspondence. All were verified by an 

 examination of siK'cimens. 



