REPORT OP THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 219 



of the (lestriiction of a large crop of cucumbers at Tncliau Eiver, Florida, 

 by these worius. It was stated thnt tliey first attacked the bud, then 

 worked into the plaut, aud eveutiially killed them out, root and branch. 

 Bej'ond this we have seen no account of much damage by this insect. 



During the jiast summer, however, the melon crop in parta of Georgia 

 has been very seriously injured by its ravages ; to what extent is vividly 

 shown in the following account Avhich vv'as kindly written at my request 

 by Prof. J. E. Willet, of Macon, Ga. I have headed this article "The 

 Melon-Worm" in spite of the fact tliat this title is not sufficiently dis- 

 tinctive for a popular name, for the reason that this insect is already 

 generally known by that name among those who have suffered from its 

 work. 



Professor Wdlefs account is as follows : 



At the aimnfil meeting of the Greorgia Horticultural Society, July, 1679, earnest in- 

 quiry about the melon- worm was made by many of the membera. It was stated that 

 the August crop of musk-melous was very subject to the attacks of worms, which were 

 very numerous and destructive, and against wliich no remedies had been successful. 



The only worm destnictive to melons, described in the books at my command, was 

 the piclde-wonn, Ph<ikclliira viiidalis. The figures and description of this by Prof. C. 

 V. Riley are copied by Professor Packard in "his Report on Noxious Insects in Hay- 

 den's Report for 1875. This worm is there represented as very injurious to melons, 

 cucumbers, &c., in the Western States. A moth of this species was caught in my 

 house the last week in August, and was the only one seen during the season. 



On the same day on whicli this moth was cauglit Mr. S. I. Gustin brought me two 

 nutmeg-melons, sjiying *^-'^*' they Avere the best of a load which he had just gatliered. 

 Each melon had about half a dozen caterjiillars, which had excavated shallow cavi- 

 ties in the melons, or had penetrated bodily into the same. The melons- were too 

 much injured to be eatable. These worms, I naturally supposed, might be the pickle- 

 worms, a moth of which species I had just caught. 



In the coarse of the next two or three weeks I visited three melon patches, where 

 musk-melons had been planted for market. All presented the same scene of total de- 

 struction. Most of the vines had been more or less denuded of leaves, and the remains 

 of the leaves contained brown chrysalids or pupae ' ' webbed x\.j> '* in them. The melons 

 of various .sizes, were occupied in great measure by the wonus. Tiie younger worms 

 were generally confined to the surface, but the older had penetrated to different 

 depths. Some had excavated shallow cavities half au inch to an inch in diameter, 

 and one-eighth of an inch in depth ; and each cavity was occupied by one or more 

 worms. Others had penetrated perpendicularly into the melons, froquen fcly beyond 

 sight. None had reached the hollow of the melon, so fiir as I saw. The worms aver- 

 aged probably half a dozen to each melon. The melon crops of these three mai'ket- 

 gardeus were a total loss. Another gardener told mo that he had abandoned the 

 culture of melons entirely, becatiso of the ravages of the melon-worm. Where culti- 

 vated in considerable numbers, the August and September crop of melons is very un- 

 certain. The destruction is frequently quite as complete, also, in private gardens. 



The melon-worms are of a light yellowish-green color, nearly translucent, have a 

 few scattered hairs, and, when mature, are about an inch and a quarter in length. 

 They " web up" in the leaves of the molon, or of any jilant growing near which haa 

 flexible leaves, fonning a slender brown chrysalis three-quarters of an inch in length. 

 Hundreds of these pupae were found rolled up in the leaves of the tomato and of the 

 Bweet-potato. 



In passing through one of the patches referred to, numbers of small, beautiful moths 

 rose from the grass and weeds. Their wings when extended measured an inch across, 

 and were of an iridescent pearly whiteness, exce))t a narrow black border. Their legs 

 and bodies presented the same ghsteuing v.iiitt'ij''ss, and the al)domens terminated in 

 a curious ruo vable tuft of white appendages like feathers, of a pretty buff color, tipped 

 with white and black. These moths jiroved to be the mature melon-worms, which 

 had emerged from the chrysalids referred to. 



The melon-worms, larvae chrysalids, and moths, were forwarded to Prof. J. H. 

 Comstock, Entomologist of the United States Agricultural Department, for identifica- 

 tion. Ho pronounced them to be FlialccUiira hyaVuudaVts, another species of the same 

 genua as the Western pickle-worm, Fhakelhivn I'ilUh'Jis. The moth of the latter, 

 wliich I have, is somewhat smaller, and the ground color of the wings is a hronsse 

 yellow and the black border is broader. 



Much later in the season a few worms were found on cucnmbers, and were pro- 

 nounced by Professor Cumstock to be melon-worms. A year previous, in the summer 

 of 1678. I found a chrysalis webbed in a tomato leaf, and this chrysaha gave forth the 



