146 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[October, 



the quick and restless motions that so peculi- 

 arly distinguish the larvie of the apple worm 

 (Carpacapsa), although they evidently he- 

 longed to a different genus. The plant had 

 but two or three small leaves in addition to 

 the seed-leaves, and the worms attacked them 

 alonf the edges, eating inward, although one 

 of th'e leaves they perforated, eating into large 

 holes. Tliese larva?, at that date, were eight 

 millimetres in length, and about three in cir- 

 cumference ; with six pectoral and eight pro- 

 le"S, two of them being on the anal segment 

 of^the body ; a liglit brownish head and a few 

 short sparse hairs scattered over the body, 

 which are only visible under a strong magni- 

 fying power. Through an unavoidable con- 

 tingency these larva- died and I immersed 

 them in alcohol, in which they soon lost their 

 greenish colors and became pale llesh colored. 

 An ither Lot Received. 

 One month later (Jnly 1.5th,) I received 

 from a gentleman living in Spring Garden, 

 Lancaster county, Pa., a Lepidopterous larva, 

 one inch and a quarter in length, and about 

 three-eighths in circumference, of a purer 

 brighter green color, the same in form and 

 motions as the above described, together with 

 some of the young germinal leaves, on which 

 it had been feeding. These leaves had not 

 yet fully expanded, and the larva was feeding 

 inside, holding them apparently together with 

 a slight webbing. When disturbed its quick 

 motions were very similar to those received 

 from Mr. Lippold. After it had devoured all 

 of the original plant in which I received it, 

 I transferred it to a glass vessel in which I 

 had a growing tobacco plant, which it at- 

 tacked, "and fed on the edges of the leaves, 

 and on the SSth of July it left the plant and 

 burrowed into the ground, but not before it 

 had eaten nearly the whole plant. 

 The Transformation. 

 In two or three days thereafter it trans- 

 formed into a glossy, light-brown, cylindrical 

 pupa, three-quarters of ah inch in length, 

 liaving a double spine over an eighth 

 of an inch in length at the caudal extremity 

 without any other unusual characteristics. 

 On the 8th of August the moth evolved from 

 the pupa. The body is three-quarters of an 

 inch in length, and the wings expand an inch 

 and a quarter. The color is between a fawn 

 and a very light brownish hue ; the lower 

 side somewhat lighter ; eyes brown and promi- 

 nent ; antenna; tilliform. Just inside of the 

 costal or anterior margin of the wing and 

 about midway between the base and the apex 

 (of the front wing) is an oblong, square spot, 

 more intense on" the lower side than the 

 upper, and a dark band between the spot 

 and the apex; near tlie posterior angle of the 

 hind wing, and from thence forward is a 

 similar band, also more conspicuous below than 

 above. The upper side of the head and thorax 

 is darker in color than the rest of the body. 

 But these marks only relate to this specimen; 

 farther on it will be seen that they ditfer very 

 much lioth in color and markings. 



An Old Acquaintance with a New Face. 

 Now, it will no doubt surprise the reader as 

 much as it did me to learn that the moth I 

 thus bred from the green tobacco worm was 

 nothing more nor less than that omniverous 

 cosmopolitan known so extensively as the 

 Southern "Boll-worm," otherwise "corn- 

 worm" [Heliothisarmiijera^Ilieh), redescribed 

 by Grote as Heliotim umbrosiis. Tlie larvic of 

 this moth exhibit great variations of colora- 

 tion, not only in their different stages of de- 

 velopment, but also at maturity. Tliey occur 

 in difl'erent shades of green, brown and pink, 

 but have nearly always moderately broad mar- 

 ginal stripes of a lighter color. In the speci- 

 men I reared these stripes were whitish, 

 tinged with red. That it was a HcUothis I did 

 not much doubt, although it differed in colora- 

 tion from the figures and descriptions I liad 

 seen ; hut I did not for a moment suppose that 

 it was armiijera. My friend. Prof. Herman 

 Strecker, of Reading, however, assures me 

 that it ?'.s, ^Ir. Grote to the contrary notwith- 

 standing. 



Not a Dainty Feeder. 



It would be more difficult to state definitely 

 what this insect does not feed on than what it 

 does. In the South there are at least seven 

 broods of it in a favorable season, according 

 to Prof. Oomstock, the earlier broods feeding 

 on the young corn leaves, and the later ones 

 on the cotton leaves, buds and bolls ; it then 

 also feeds on the silk of corn ears, and gets 

 under the husks and feeds on the grains, not 

 only when the corn is in the milky or green 

 state, but they have been found feeding upon 

 it when it is nearly or quite ripe. In the North 

 they have not been heretofore very numerous, 

 but they may possibly become so in the future, 

 especially if they take a liking for the to- 

 bacco plant. Here they have been frequently 

 detected feeding upon the young silk of the 

 corn ears, and on the young grains and cobs, 

 and some seasons they are present in con- 

 siderable numbers ; but there are other species 

 of the cut-worm family that depredate in the 

 same manner. They also bore into and feed 

 upon the fruit of the tomato, and Mr. H. M. 

 Engle informs me that they were more than 

 ordinarily numerous and destructive to his 

 tomatoes the present season (See Parjieh for 

 August, p. 117). And now they are likely to 

 become "tobacco chewers," which is perhaps 

 not very wonderful. Tobacco is a very succu- 

 lent plant, and has invited and demoralized 

 severl other insects that have heretofore been 

 contented with more inferior, or at least more 

 inexpensive food, and why not such an indis- 

 criminate feeder as the boll-worm ? 

 A Redeeming Quality in this Cosmopolitan. 

 If we excepted the frigid zones it might 

 also be difficult to say in what part of the 

 world they might not be found, for they seem 

 to have a wide geographical distribution. 

 They have, however, at least one redeeming 

 quahty— they devour, not only each other, 

 but the larvse and pupffi of other moths, es- 

 pecially those of the "cotton worm," {Aletia). 

 Prof. Riley states that it is difficult to rear 

 them in confinement on account of their can- 

 nibalistic habit, even when they have an 

 abundance of other food ; and not only in 

 confinement hut in a state of freedom. The 

 boll-worm may therefore be placed on record 

 as one of the possible "tobacco-pests" of Lan- 

 caster county ; and, if possible, it may soon 

 become very probable, and provision will have 

 to he made to circumvent it. 



Other Enemies of the Tobacco Plant. 

 Among the early enemies of the tobacco 

 plant is also a beetle, the larva of which be- 

 longs to the true "wire worms." The term 

 wire worm, without any qualification, is calcu- 

 lated to mislead the uninformed, because cer- 

 tain species of myriopods have also very ex- 

 tensively received that name, and coincident- 

 ally also a small myriopod has been found 

 destructive to the plants in the seed beds, and 

 which properly belongs to the category in- 

 cluded in my paper No. 1. An account of 

 this "pest" may be found on page 161, Vol. 

 X., of The Lancaster Farmer. 



The true wire worms infest the tobacco 

 after it is planted in the field. They don't 

 attack the leaf— indeed, they could not well 

 adhere to the surface or edges of the leaves ; 

 they bore into the stems at their bases, and 

 work upwards ; but their history and trans- 

 formations are difficult to trace to their full 

 development ; because, even admitting that 

 the eggs are deposited at the base of the plant, 

 they don't attain their final development 

 there. After the tobacco gets a fair start at 

 growing, nothing is seen of these worms again 

 until the following spring. 



An Instalment of Wire Worms Received. 

 On the 12th of June last Mr. Lippold, of 

 Salunga, also sent me three of these wre 

 worms, which, with many others, were depre- 

 dating upon his plants at that time. Mr. L. 

 is an intelligent and successful tobacco 

 grower ; but it must not be inferred that his 

 crop was infested beyond any others in the 

 county. I have found that there are but few 

 who will go to the trouble to capture, properly 

 pack, and send these pests to an entomologist. 



and he is one among them. These wire worms 

 at that date were twelve miUiraetres in length, 

 and about three in circumference ; a lemon 

 yellow in color ; head dark brown, and the 

 dorsal surface of the three first segments of a 

 light brownish color; on the ventral surface of 

 these segments are three pairs of short feet 

 (pectoral). On the lower side of the caudal 

 segment is a tubercular foot, in tlie centre of 

 which seems to be the anal aperture, and this 

 is used as a prop in locomotion ; this terminal 

 segment ends with two flattened bifid lobes, 

 with a short obtuse spine at the outer base of 

 each, and a few white bristling hairs. The 

 whole body is firm and smooth, and the insect 

 glides aloiig rapidly, and soon buries itself in 

 the soil. 



What They Are And Do. 

 It is the larva of a Coleopterous insect, and 

 belongs to the family ELATERiDiE, common- 

 ly called "Click -beetles," or "Hammer-bugs," 

 of which there are about two thousand species 

 in this country. The bifid caudal lobes seem 

 to ally it to the genus Aihous, but its species 

 could not even be surmised without the de- 

 velopment of the beetle. Some of these wire 

 worms also infest the young corn and the 

 wheat, as well as other vegetable substances. 

 Curtis, in his work on "Farm Insects," de- 

 scribes and figures a number of them, and his 

 larva of Elater murinus makes the nearest ap- 

 proximation to the one here alluded to. These 

 larvie are probably in the soil when the to- 

 bacco is planted, feeding on other species of 

 vegetation, but tobacco affording a more lus- 

 cious and abundant repast, they, like many 

 other insects, are attracted to it. 



Remedies for These Pests. 

 Of course I can give no remedy for the 

 Tobacco Boll-tuorm from my own experience. 

 When they are numerous in the South they 

 do not attempt to hand-pick them. Spraying 

 the larvse when quite young with suspended 

 Paris green or London purple is said to kill 

 them, but when they are older they are gen- 

 erally under cover, and could not well be 

 reached. Late fall plowing and turning up 

 the pupiB to winter exposure has also been 

 suggested. But it seems to be the general 

 opinion that trapping the moths with shallow 

 basins of poisoned sweets, burning torches, or 

 vessels of molasses and vinegar, are the most 

 reliable modes of destroying them. This lat- 

 ter mixture is supposed to be the best. The 

 moths belong to the family Noctuid.e or 

 "Night Flyers," and are fond of sweets; 

 therefore, these traps should be set at night. 

 There is supposed to be something about the 

 vinegar compound that attracts them. 



As to the " Wire Worms," an intelligent 

 experimenter once informed me that he ban- 

 ished all the cut worms and other noxious 

 insects from his garden by mixing gaslime 

 with the soil. 



Queries and Answers. 



THE LONG-STINGED ICHNEUMON. 



Dear Sir : I enclose you what is said to be a 

 small specimen of fly found on a dead tree in Walnut 

 street, of tfiis town. The party who caught it says 

 that he has seen as many as twenty at one time on 

 the trunk of the tree mentioned, all busily boring 

 holes, but at the time he went to capture one of 

 them for me, he only saw one which is the one en- 

 closed, and which he says is only half the size of 

 most of them. You will find that the head is 

 severed from the body, having been done so by the 

 party who caught it ; he being afraid of it. He says It 

 does the boring with the long caudal appendage ; 

 that he, with probably twenty others, watched 

 them working a great while, but they all seemed 

 afraid to molest them. I visited the tree this after- 

 noon and found the whole trunk perforated with 

 holes from an eighth to a quarter of an inch in 

 diameter. I will visit the place again, when proba- 

 bly I can secure a larger and more perfect specimen. 

 We are anxious to know what it is. Let us hear 

 from yonsoon.— Tours, dc, O. F. R., Cohimbia,, 

 Sept. 17, 1880. 



Your fragmentary specimen was received 

 this morning. Although mutilated, still there 

 was sufficient of it undamaged to enable me 

 to identify it. It is one of the ' ' Long-stinged 



