47 



seems likely iluit Lhey lay their ef;fi,s in Inll in ^rass-hinds, ;iii<l tliui these 

 hatc'li ill fall or the following spring. 



The stalk-borer is much infested by parasites, both dipterous and 

 liymcnopterous, access being got to the caterpillars, doubtless, during 

 Ihcir intervals of wandering while outside the infested plants. 



i'ortunately, injuries by this insect are not of a kind to recpiire spe- 

 cial measures of i)reventi()ii or remedy. It is, of course, impossible 

 to poison the larva in the corn field, and the breeding habits of the insect 

 arc not such as to enable us to destroy it in the pupa state by any ordi- 

 nary operation. If headlands and other grassy lots adjoining corn 

 show in early spring an unusual abundances of these insects, it might be 

 worth while to mow the infested turf and carry away and feed the cut 

 grass promptly, before the caterpillars could escape to enter the corn. 



A number of other stalk-borers besides the one ef?pecially referred to 

 in this discussion, occur in Illinois, all closely related to the preceding, 

 extremely like it in general apj)earaiice, and injuring vegetation in an 

 iflentical manner. Their life histories, so far as we may infer from 

 scattered observations and breeding-cage notes, are i)ractically the same 

 as those of the common species. None of them have been noticed in 

 corn, although some of them may easily have been confused with nitela 

 in corn-field collections. These related stalk-borers differ from nitda 

 especially in the fact that the longitudinal lines are less developcfl in 

 some of the species and more so in others. 



Thk Au.\iv-\\<)um. 



fjeucania unipimchi Haw. 



(H(li()j)liil(i iini puncht.) 



(I't'ltc II ) 



This notorious entomological raider and marauder, although one of 

 the most destructive of the insect pests of American agriculture, is 

 actually noticed and distinguisluMl bv individual farmers only when it 

 becomes so numerous as to travel in companies, that is, once in some 

 ten or fifteen years, or so, in any given locality. Indeed, many Illinois 

 farmers of several years' experience have never se(;n the army-worm at 

 all to know it, and many nujre would not recognize it with any certainty, 

 if found within their fields and meadows, until it got ])ractically beyond 

 control. It is often very desirable, how(;ver, that its presence in grass- 

 lands should be detected Ijefore it has begun its career of general destruc- 

 tion, and a good and )jlaiii description of it is conse(|uentIy very much to 

 be desired. • 



This caterpillar should be looked for especially in the coarser, ranker 

 grass growing in the lower, moister parta of the meadow. In the lati- 

 tude of central Illinois, it appears in three broods or successive genera- 



