wrote that, a few years ago, the larvae of Cr ambus vulgiva- 

 gellus ravaged the corn fields of Ashtabula County, Ohio. 



In 1881, the larvae of Crambus vulgivagellus devastated 

 the fields of several counties in northern New York, and 

 were very abundant in many other places during that year. 

 In 181)2, the larvae of Crambus caliginosellus were reported 

 as doing great damage to corn in Delaware and Maryland, 

 and it is a common thing to receive these moths from the 

 farmers in various parts of the country, stating that they 

 are more or less abundant. 



NATURAL ENEMIES. 



Professor Lintner bred a Hymenopterous and a Dipterous 

 parasite from these insects, and also found the predaceous 

 beetle, Calosoma calidum (Fab.), destroying them, as he 

 believed. Professor Riley also bred two different Hymen- 

 opterous parasites from the larvae of C. laqueatellus. In- 

 sectivorous birds are known to feed freely upon these moths. 

 Professor Webster states, on the authority of J. N. Latta of 

 Haw Patch, Ind., that the moths of Crambus laqueatellus 

 were destroyed in great numbers by the wood pewee ( Con- 

 topus virens), and I have myself observed barn swallows 

 feeding on different species of Crambus in abundance in 

 Maine. When walking through the grass, at my home on 

 Mt. Desert, the Crambids were "flushed," and several 

 swallows invariably attended us, snapping up the moths 

 as they flew. Whenever we stopped the swallows would 

 leave ; and as soon as we started, they would return to 

 catch the moths, often flying within a few feet of us. These 

 observations were made during several years, and led me to 

 conclude that farmers would do well to afford every possible 

 encouragement to these birds to nest in their barns, for they 

 do a vast amount of good in destroying injurious insects 

 while on the wing. 



HISTORY. 



The species of this family were placed by Linnaeus, in all 

 his writings, under his genus Tinea. The authors of the 

 " Systematisches Verzeichniss der Schmetterlinge der Wien- 

 ergegend," published in 1776, placed them under the Tinece, 



