90 



attacks our corn, and does great damage to our tomatoes by eating 

 into the fruit; and the fact of its being bred from the tomato in 

 England, where the fruit is with difficulty grown, is interesting and 

 suggestive." 



Mr. Glover reports that in Maryland, in 1869, this worm did great 

 damage to the tomato crop, eating the ripe fruit as well as the un- 

 ripe. It does not confine itself to a single tomato, but goes from 

 one to another, gnawing holes in them, thereby causing them to 

 wholly or. partially decay, and rendermg them unfit for market. 

 The interior of the tomato is so juicy that it seems satisfied to re- 

 main on the outside of the fruit and gnaw in only so far as it can 

 reach with the front part of its body, seeming to prefer the more 

 solid outer portion. Professor Comstock reports that : 



"Several specimens were recently (1879) sent to the department, 

 with the remark that they were found boring into the terminal 

 shoots of the tomato-plants at Macon, Ga., early in September." 



This shows that as with cotton these worms do not eat the fruit 

 alone, but may be found feeding upbn other parts of the plant. 

 During the present season (1881) I found quite a number of my 

 tomatoes rotting, and in each instance the rotting proceeded from a 

 hole that had been eaten in the side of the unripe fruit. 



OTHEE CULTIVATED PLANTS INJURED. 



The other vegetables that are injured by the larva of Heliothis 

 Armigera are peas, beans, and pumpkins, while tobacco has been 

 mentioned as one of the plants upon which it is occasionally found. 

 Mrs. Mary Treat, of Vineland, N. J., reported in 1879, that: 



"This year green peas have been eaten into by a hateful looking 

 worm, and a similar one ate into the staminate flowers of the corn 

 before it tasseled out, commencing their depredations while the tas- 

 sels were still enfolded in the leaves." 



Mr. Wm. Frelease, as reported by Professor Comstock, found 

 them eating garden peas in Alabama, stating that "a Boll-worm 

 would bore a hole into the pod and devour its whole contents be- 

 fore leaving it for another," and other writers speak of the same 

 habit. In fact it seems to thrive well upon not only peas and beans 

 but upon a number of other allied leguminous plants. 



THE EGG. 



In shape the egg of this insect is nearly globular, a little flattened 

 at the base, with a slight depression in the top or side opposite the 

 base, and a series of ridges from this depression to the base. The 

 diameter is about .0'2| inches, and it is of a pale- straw color. Pro- 

 fessor Comstock says : 



"A noticeable feature of many of these eggs is an irregular red- 

 dish-brown band near the summits, which gradually disappears with 

 the development of the embryo." 



