38 



THE CELERY WORM. 



(Plusia simplex, Guenee.) 



(Order Lepidoptera. Family Noctuid^.) 



[Eeeding upon Celery, Lettuce and a few other plants ; a naked 

 green span-worm, whose body is marked with eight white lines, and 

 is provided with only twelve legs.] 



On the 21st of November I received from the editor of the Ger- 

 mantown Telegraj^h a box of insects for determination. On the 

 wrapper in which the box was sent was written the words "Celery- 

 worms," and in the letter which accompanied the box the Editor 

 stated that the worms he sent me were very destructive to Celery 

 in many gardens in his locality. 



The above worms agreed precisely with the description of the 

 larva of the Plusia simplex of Guenee that I bred a few years ago. 

 This description is as follows : 



The body is very robust posteriorly, from whence it tapers to the 

 head. It is of a pale, translucent green color, and is marked with 

 a dark line on the back, on each side of which are three white lines, 

 the middle one the largest ; on a line with the spiracles is a white 

 line, and above it is a dark green stripe, darker than the ground 

 color above it. The piliferous spots are either green or white, and 

 are sometimes tipped with black. Below the stigmatal white line 

 the body is dark green. The spiracles are white and are ringed with 

 black. The head is green, and is unmarked except by the black 

 eyelets. When fully grown this larva measures about one and one- 

 fourth inches in length. 



In the first stage, or that immediately succeeding the egg, the 

 second white line, (counting from the middle of the back) is want- 

 ing, and in the hibernating worms, which we found early in the 

 Spring, all of the white lines except the two stigmatal are usually- 

 wanting. 



I have never seen a specimen of the Cabbage Plusia (Plusia 

 brassica, Riley), at least not to know it ; according to the description 

 of it given in Riley's Second Report* it must resemble the Celery 



♦Second Annual Report on the Noxious and Beneficial Insects of the State of Missouri; 

 pdge in. 



