88 



VEGETABLE GARDENING. 



one, can be safely applied before the plants commence to head, 

 and recent careful trials and analyses of cabbage thus treated 

 with Paris green, show there is very little danger in using it at 

 any stage on the plants. It is the simplest of remedies and 

 effective, yet not dangerous. There are parasites that attack 

 and kill the worms and chrysalides, and Dr. Lugger has 

 shown clearly that they sometimes may be destroyed very 

 rapidly by disease, as well as insect parasites. It is not un- 

 common to have nearly all these worms die in the latter part 

 of any season from one or both of these causes. 



Cabbage Plusia {Plusia brassicce.) — The cabbage plusia eats 

 irregular holes in the leaves, and burrows into the heads of 



Figure 36.— Snapping-beetle or wire worm with larvas. 



the cabbage. The parent insect is a moth of a dark-gray 

 color distinguished by a silver mark on each wing. The eggs 

 are laid on the upper surface of the leaves singly or in clus- 

 ters. They soon hatch into pale green translucent worms, 

 marked with paler longitudinal stripes on the back and sides. 

 When full grown these are about two inches long. They re- 

 semble span worms in their mode of locomotion, hence are 

 easily distinguished from the cabbage worm. The full grown 

 caterpillar spins a cocoon, generally on the under side of the 

 cabbage leaf, in which it undergoes its changes. The insect 

 winters over in the pupal state. The remedies for this pest 

 are the same as for those recommended for cabbage worms 

 and it is also subject to diseases and parasites. 



