INSECTS INJURIOUS TO MELONS, CUCUMBERS, ETC. 359 



The Melon Caterpillar * 



This species is very similar to the last in life history and habits 

 and is very commonly confused with it. It seems to be commonly 



FIG. 302. Pickle worms at work on a cucumber. (Photo by Quaintance.) 

 injurious only in the Gulf States, though the moths have been taken 

 from Canada to Central America and injury has been seen in Kansas. 

 The moth is a beautiful insect with wings of a pearly iridescent 

 whiteness, bordered with brown- 

 ish-black and expanding about 

 an inch. The anterior half of 

 the thorax and head is the same 

 color as the wing border, while 

 the abdomen is white, tinged with 

 brownish toward the tip, which is 

 surmounted by a brush of long 

 dark scales. The larvae are very 

 similar to those of the pickle FIQ 3Q3 

 worm, and the life history so far 

 as ascertained seems to be prac- 

 tically the same. The essential difference in the habits of this 

 species is that the young larvae very commonly feed on the 

 foliage. Later on they mine into the stems and fruit and are 

 readily confused with those of the last species. 



Control. The fact that the young larvae feed on the foliage 

 makes it possible to destroy them with arsenicals, and by 



* Diaphania hyalinata Linn. Family Pyraustidce. See A. L. Quaintance, 

 Bulletin 45, Geo. Agr. Exp. Sta., p. 42; R. I. Smith, Bulletin 214, N. C. 

 Agr. Exp. Sta. 



melon-worm moth 

 (Diaphania hyalinita Linn.) en- 

 larged. (Photo by Quaintance.) 



