INJURIOUS TO MELONS, CUCUMBERS, SQUASH, ETC. 399 



pupal stage is assumed, which occupies about a week. The pupa 

 is one-half to one inch long, brown, with wing and leg sheaths 

 lighter, and the tip of the abdomen bears a group of short curved 

 spines which hold the pupa more securely in the cocoon. During 

 July and August the complete life cycle requires about four weeks 

 in Georgia, and at least three definite generations have been 

 recognized, the injury by the 

 larvse being most severe in 

 July and August, evidently 

 by the second generation. 

 The winter is passed in the 

 pupal stage in the foliage or 

 trash remaining on the field. 

 Control. As injury is worst 

 in late summer, early plant- 

 ings and early-maturing va- 

 rieties are but little injured. 

 The thorough destruction of 

 the vines, foliage, and trash 

 on the field after the crop is 

 secured is of the utmost im- 

 portance in controlling this 

 as well as other pests of 

 cucurbs, and may probably 

 be accomplished with this 

 species by deeply plowing 



FIG. 288. Squash flower infested 

 with pickle worms. (.Photo by 

 Quaintance.) 



under the refuse. Professor 

 A. L. Quaintance, to whom 

 we are indebted for our knowl- 

 edge of this pest, has found that the moths greatly prefer to 

 oviposit on squash and that it may be successfully used as a 

 trap-crop for the protection of other cucurbs. Rows of summer 

 squash should be planted through the cucumber or melon fields 

 as early as possible, the rows being planted every two weeks so 

 there will be flowers through July. The squash bloom, with the 

 contained larvse, must be collected and destroyed at frequent 



