INJURIOUS INSECTS. 333 



age. It would be well to try this. It has been recommended 

 to catch the moths; also to carefully gather the eggs. But I 

 much doubt the practicability of these methods, especially the 

 latter. It is possible, and certainly very desirable, that we 

 might discover some preparation with which to surround the 

 vine, that would be so obnoxious to the moth as to prevent 

 egg-laying. Limited trials of gas-lime, whale-oil soap, weak 

 solution of carbolic acid, and other insecticides might be made. 

 It would be very well to try the remedy given by Secretary 

 Bateham, of Ohio, to prevent the work of the peach borer, which 

 is given in the description of that pest. 



Tomato "Worm. Macrosila quinquemaculata, Haw. All 

 who grow that beautiful and savory vegetable, the tomato, are 

 acquainted with the formidable pest which, unless prevented, too 

 often brings all our hopes of satisfied tomato appetites to naught. 

 Who has not seen the beautiful larva, so fat and gay in its 

 robes of deepest green, trimmed with yellow or white and beaded 

 with the same, and who has not heard of the utterly groundless 

 stories of its fatal horn, whose poisonous thrust it is said brings 

 pain and death. 



NATURAL HISTORY. In July, the beautiful large gray moths 

 (Fig. 12) appear, lay their 

 eggs on the leaves of the 

 tomato, not refusing potato 

 vines in the absence of 

 tomato plants, which they 

 evidently prefer, at which FlG 13 



work they may be seen early in the evening. I have fre- 

 quently caught these so-called humming-bird moths around the 



tomato plants, or poised 

 above flowers, where, with 

 their long sucking-tube, 

 they seem engaged in ex- 

 tra c ting nectar. The 

 Fm " greenish larvae (Fig. 13), 



though they are not infrequently dark brown, eat voraciously, 

 grow rapidly, and by the last of August they have not only 



