REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGLST. 333 



FooD-ri;ANTS. — For many years it was not known tluit tlio destructive 

 corn- worm and the cotton lioll-worm were the same insect. It Avas sus- 

 pected by many before actually demonstrated, but is even now un- 

 known to tlie majority of agriculturists. The first record of the iden- 

 tity of the two insects which we have been able to find is in the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture Rei>ort for 1854, in an article headed "Insects in- 

 festing the cotton i)lant," by Towuend Glover. Mr. Glover says : 



There is <a striking similarity between the boll- worm and the corn-worm, in apjiear- 

 ance, food, and habits, both in the cater])illar and perfect state, which leads to the 

 8up])ositiou that the boll-AV(n'm may be the yonng- of the corn-v.'orm moth, and the 

 egjis deposited on the youno; bolls as the nearest substitnte for given corn, and placed 

 on them only when the corn has become too old and hard for their food. "' * * Col. 

 B. A. Sorsby, of Colnmbiis, Miss., has bred both insects, and declaies them to be the 

 same; and moreover when, according to his advice, the corn was carefully wormed, 

 on two or three plantations, the boll-wonn^ did not make their appearance that season 

 on the cotton, notwithstanding on neighboring i)lantations they committed great 

 ravages. 



To Col. B. A. Sorsby, then, must be given the credit for first making 

 this imijortaut discoveiy. 



The consideration of the boll-worm in corn is inseparably connected 

 with the consideration of its work in cotton, so little, more need be said 

 here of its methods of work. In those corn States wliich do not grow 

 cotton, it is greatly dreaded. Wliole crops are ruined in Kansas, Ken- 

 tucky, South Illinois, and Missouri, and scarcely a year passes without 

 much damage being done. 



According to Eiley, there are two broods of the worms a year in those 

 States, and very early and very late corn fare the worst, the intermedi- 

 ate varieties usually escaping severe injury. In seasons of protracted 

 length, a third brood is sometimes produced, whi(;h, for want of other 

 food, lives upon the hard kernels of well-ripened ears. Mrs. Treat has 

 shown that an early brood in New Jersey bores into the stalks of corn, 

 and also eats through the leaves surrounding the staminate tlowers be- 

 fore the ears have begun to make their appearance. Tliis would argue 

 perhaps three broods a year north, nudving the exceptional late brood of 

 which Professor Eiley speaks a fourth. The so-called " bud-worms" of 

 the Southern corn crop are nothing Init this same early brood of HcUotJiis, 

 having almost precisely similar habits to those observed in iSTcw Jersey 

 by Mrs. Treat. 



In the role of a tomato- worm, Ilellothls has done a great deal of dam- 

 age. In ]\Iar>land, in ISO'J, according to Mr. Glover, these worms did 

 great injury to the tomato crop, eating alike the ri])e and the unripe 

 fruit, gna-wing great lioles in them and rendering them unfit for market 

 use. One worm would sometimes entirely ruin a number of tomatoes on 

 one plant alone. Concerning this taste of the boll-worm, Mr. Eiley says : 



This glutton is not even satisfied with ravaging tliese two great staples of the 

 country, cotton and C(n-n, but, as I discovered in 1867, it voraciously attacks the 

 tomato in Soiith Illinois, eating into the green fruit, and thereby causing such fruit 

 to rot. In this manner it often causes serious loss to the tomato grow^^r, and it may 

 justly be considered the worst enemy to the tomato in that section" of the country. 



In the American Entomologist, ii, 172, we find the following interest- 

 ing state J u cut: 



AVo learn from a receul number oC .Scieniirn- Opinion thai, at a late meeting of the 

 London KntouKdogical Society, Mr. .ienuer Weir <!\hibited spe<imens of our cotton 

 lioll-worm moth {Hvliothis onnujcra, lliibii.) wliich were luvd from larvae v.hich fed 

 on tlic fruit of the t(unato. As wc have already shown (American EutouAologist, i, 

 p)>. 'il2, 21:!), this same species attacks our corn, and iloes great damage to oni- toma- 

 toes by eating into the fruit ; and the fact; of its being l)red from the ifx)mato in Eng- 

 land, where this fruit is with ditiicuity grown, is interesting and suggestive. 



