26 STATE POMOLOQICAL SOCIETY. 



remedy for this insect, unless it be in the mode of planting the 

 onions. The fly lays her egj^s just above the surface of the 

 ground, and the maggots which hatch from these work their way 

 down to the root upon which they feed till they consume all save 

 the outer skin, when they leave that onion, and work their way 

 through the ground to the next, each maggot requiring several 

 onions to furnish all its needs ; and, if the onions are grown in a 

 drill, so as to touch or nearly touch each other, the maggots find 

 but little difficulty in working through the ground from one onion 

 to another, but if they are planted in hills, or some distance from 

 each other, the chances of their getting from one onion to another 

 are very much against them, for they have no feet and can only 

 make their way along through the soil very slowly. 



The army worm, (Leucania unipuncla, Haw. J not many years 

 ago was very abundant in some parts of the State, doing an 

 immense amount of damage ; but its foes so multiplied that it was 

 greatly reduced in numbers, and is indeed quite a rarity in some 

 sections. This year we hear of it again in various quarters, and 

 fear that another year may bring news of the devastations of this 

 insect equal to that of 1861. It is to be hoped, however, that 

 even this year the parasites have been so abundant as to check 

 the army worm, so that we may hear nothing from it ne.xt year. 



You may possibly have a desire that I should, before closing, 

 say something of the Colorado potato beetle, (Boryphora decem- 

 lineata, Say) which has been making such havoc in the western 

 potato fields, and at whose rapid approach we are looking with 

 dismay. Beetles of almost every description have been sent to 

 nie during the past season, to know whether they were the genu- 

 ine Colorado potato beetle. In reply I have sent to persons who 

 I thought would inform their friends, preserved specimens of this 

 beetle, and also gave samples to the members of my class in ento- 

 mology, with instructions to show them to the farmers wherever 

 they went, and inform those not already posted, of the life history 

 and best means of checking the ravages of this insect when it 

 makes its appearance among us. I can hardly tell to what point 

 in New England the beetle has arrived this season, but probably 

 it will make its appearance in western Maine next summer. We 

 are as yet obliged to refer to the writings of others for the history 

 of this insect which bids fair very soon to give us every oppor- 

 tunity for investigating its habits ourselves. From the reports of 

 the Western and Canadian entomologists, we learn that the eggs, 



