OF THE FARM AND GARDEN". * 49 



account is given of the destruction of a large crop of 

 cucumbers at Indian River, Florida, by these worms. It 

 was stated that they first attacked the bud, then worked 

 into the plant, and eventually killed them out, root and 

 branch. The melon crop in parts of Georgia has been 

 very seriously injured by its ravages; to what extent is 

 vividly shown in the following account by Prof. J. E. 

 Willet, of Macon, Ga. [The following are the essential 



Fig. 33.- MELON-WORM (Phacellura fiycdinatalis). 

 Larva, Chrysalis, and Moth, closed and open. 



points of Prof. Willett's letter. He thus describes the 

 appearance in three patches, in which melons had been 

 planted for market. ED.] 



e( All presented the same scene of total destruction. 

 Most of the vines had been more or less denuded of leaves, 

 and the remains of the leaves contained brown chrysalids 

 or pupCB " webbed up " in them. The melons of various 

 sizes were occupied in great measure by the worms. 

 The younger worms were generally confined to the surface, 

 but the older had penetrated to different depths. Some 

 had excavated shallow cavities half an inch to an inch in 

 diameter, and one-eighth of an inch in depth; and each 

 3 



