39° 



BUGS, INSECTS, ETC.— REMEDIES FOR 



CORN "WORM, alias Boll Worn. — , 

 This is a Avorm Avhich is every year more 

 or less destructive to our corn in the ear, 

 and Avhcse ravages are increasing Avith 

 every successive year. 



This glutton is not even satisfied Avith 

 ravaging these tAvo great staples of the 



Fig. 32. 



country— cotton and corn — but, as Ave dis- 

 covered in 1875, it voraciously attacks the 

 tomato, eating into the green fruit (Fig. 

 32), and thereby causing such fruit to rot. 

 In this manner it often causes serious loss 

 to the tomato-grower, and it may justly 

 be considered the worst enemy to the to- 

 mato in that section of the country. Mr. 



deeply. 



Fig. 33. 



Glover also found it feeding in a young 

 pumpkin, and it has been ascertained by 

 Mrs. Mary Treat, of Vineland, New 

 Jersey, not only to feed upon the unde- 

 veloped tassels of corn, and upon green 

 peas, but to bore into the stems of the 



garden flower known as Gladiolus, and. 

 in confinement to eat ripe tomatoes.. 

 Last summer it Avas also found by Miss M. 

 E. Murtfeldt in common string beans,, 

 around KirkAvood, Mo., and in Europe 

 it is recorded by M. Ch. Goureau a* 

 not only infesting the ears of Indian corn, 

 but as devouring the heads ot 

 hemp, and leaves of tobacco, and 

 of lucern. The fact of its attack- 

 ing a kind of pea, namely, the 

 chick pea or coffee-pea, has also 

 been recorded by M. J. Fallou in 

 certain parts of France, the young 

 worms feeding on the leaves, but 

 the larger individuals boring 

 through the pods and devouring 

 the peas. 

 > But for the present Ave will con- 

 sider this insect only in the two 

 roles of Boll-Avorm and Corn- 

 worm, because it is as such that 

 it interests the practical man most 

 The egg from which the Avorm 

 hatches (Fig. 35 , a, side vieAv; b, top view 

 magnified) is ribbed in a someAvhat simi- 

 lar manner to that of the Cotton-worm, 

 but may be readily distinguished by being 

 less flattened, and of a pale straAV color 

 instead of green. It is usually deposited 

 singly on the outside of the involucel or 

 outer calyx of the flower or young 

 boll, and each female moth is capable 

 of thus consigning to their proper 

 places, upwards of five hundred eggs. 

 Mr. Glover, in his account of the Boll- 

 worm, says : " Some eggs of the Boll- 

 worm moth hatched in three or four 

 days, after being brought in from the 

 field, the enclosed worms gnawing a 

 hole through the shell of the egg and 

 then escaping. They soon commenced 

 feeding upon the tender fleshy sub- 

 stance of the calyx, near the place, 

 where the egg had been deposited. 

 When they had gained strength, some 

 of the worms pierced through the calyx, 

 and others through the petals of the 

 closed flower -bud, or even pene- 

 trated into the young and tender 

 boll itself. The pistils and stamens, 

 of the open flower, are frequently 

 found to be distorted and injured without 

 any apparent cause. This has been done: 

 by the young Boll-worm ; when hidden in 

 the unopened bud, it has eaten one side 

 only of the pistils and stamens, so that 

 Avhen the flower is open the parts injured 



