278 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Heliothis armigera feeding on hard Corn. 



— The Boll Worm or Corn Worm is exceedingly 

 common and mischievous here this j^ear. In 

 some places every third ear of corn contains a 

 worm. In one or two points the published de- 

 scriptions seem deficient. The second brood, 

 now growing, feeds, no doubt, on the milky 

 kernels by choice, but not by any means con- 

 stantly, nor does it confine its mischief to a 

 single ear. Leaving the one on which it has been 

 engaged, it passes to a second, whicli involves a 

 journey down one stalk and up another. This 

 is probably performed in the night. Its man- 

 dibles are capable of gnawing not merely the 

 juicy milky kernels of the young ear, but the 

 harder, riper ones of the ear when nearly mature 

 and ready to cut. In cutting my own corn 

 yesterday, I found many specimens of this in- 

 sect, and there now lies before me an ear almost 

 uninjured and nearly dry, the kernels being too 

 hard to yield to the nail, and full of meal when 

 broken, in which is an almost full-grown corn 

 worm engaged in eating these hard grains. The 

 worm has attacked the ear in two or three places 

 and eaten about half a dozen corns, so that it 

 is very plain that it has not spent its whole ex- 

 istence in this ear. The infested ears may often 

 be detected on passing through the field by see- 

 ing a hole in the husk, through which the worm 

 has entered the ear, and a few days ago I saw a 

 half-grown worm gnawing its way into an ear, 

 and making just such a hole. When I caught it, 

 it had bored through the outer sheath only, and 

 was at work on the second. — E. W. Claypole, 

 Antioch College, O. 



P. S. Later. I have as late as the first week 

 of this month found small corn worms not more 

 than half an inch long engaged in eating the ripe 

 ears of corn, and I can add from experience 

 that these small worms can bite sharply. 



Answers to Correspondents, 



Gall on Solidago Leaves. — I mail you to- 

 day a box containing specimens of Solidago 

 leaves — am not certain as to the species, but 

 think it is .S". nemoralis (Ait.). I send them be- 

 cause they bear some new galls, or new ones to 

 me, in which you may perhaps be interested. 

 Should be glad to know the name of the gall. 

 — Harley Barnes, Mulberry Corners, Ohio. 



The galls on Solidago leaves are made b)'^ a 

 little gall gnat which Osten Sacken described 

 as Cecidomyia carbonifera. 



Oak Gall: Cynips q-decidua Bass.— I send 

 in to-day's mail a box containing some leaves 

 of Qiiercus Diiihlenbcrgii Engelm, which have on 

 them what I take to be the eggs of an insect. 

 Thinking they may be of interest I send them. 

 I would be glad to know what they are, at your 

 leisure.— J. Schueck, Mt. Carmel,'lll. 



The objects you send are not eggs, but a col- 

 lection of galls made by a gall fly. The gall 



differs slightly from Cynips q-decidua Bassett, but 

 is probably the same species. It is described in 

 the Proceedings Entomol. Soc, Philadelphia, 

 vol. Ill, p. 689. 



Insects from Stomach of Lark, Robin and 

 Sun Fish.— i'. A. Forbes, Norfnal, ///.—The 

 Diplotaxis from the stomach of Meadow Lark is 

 D. sordida (Say). The egg taken from the 

 stomach of a Robin shot on the loth of August 

 is that of a Heteropterous insect, belonging to 

 the Reduviidce. As it is separated from its asso- 

 ciates, and the gum surrounding it dissolved, it 

 is pretty hard to determine. Nor can we state 

 positively what the Ephemerid larva from Sun 

 fish is, as we have reared but few. It may be- 

 long to the common Polemitarcys alba (Say), but 

 this is onl}- a guess. 



Supposed hibernating Aletia Chrysalis. — 



Inclosed I send what to me is the chrysalis of 

 the Cotton Worm I found in the piece of corn 

 stalk as you see it, and it is alive now. Per- 

 haps you ma}' determine from this whether the 

 worm is preserved through the winter in this 

 way. If you think this throws any light on the 

 subject, I will be glad to hear from you. — Re- 

 spectfully, Jos. W. Davidson, Uniontown, Ala. 



The chrysalis does not belong to the Cotton 

 Worm, but is something entirely diflFerent, some- 

 thing resembling that of Achatodes zca: (Harr.), 

 the " Spindle-worm." We will endeavor to 

 breed the moth in order to determine the species 

 with certainty. 



Sheep Parasites : Pyrethrum. — I notice in 

 your paper read before the Scientific Association, 

 at Boston, on the practical results of the Cotton 

 Worm inquiry, that you have experimented with 

 the powder of the Pyrethrum roseum. There is 

 a disease in the south-west of the State known as 

 Lambrize, tliiit carries oflF hundreds of thousands 

 of lambs every )-ear. It is a red worm in the 

 intestines. The powder could be easily adminis- 

 tered with salt. Do you think it would kill 

 worms internally? 



The scab is increasing and will increase on 

 account of the driving of scabby sheep to the new 

 sheep walks in the north-west from Mexico and 

 the south-west country. Sheep men are willing 

 and keep working away with lots of nostrums. 

 Tobacco, scientifically prepared and applied, is 

 a cure, but it often fails. I am told that the 

 active principle is nicotine, which is a product 

 of the first fermentation, and is lost when it goes 

 beyond that. This may account for the many 

 failures with tobacco. I have no data to fix for 

 the loss occasioned by scab, but judging from 

 my own locality, by death loss, and deterioration 

 of wool and clipping expenses, that it would 

 reach a million and a half or two million dollars 

 annually. — Alex. Mitchell, Waldrip, Tex. 



We have had no experience with Pyrethrum 

 as a cure for the sheep disease you first mention, 

 but should be very glad to have you try it and 

 report results through these columns. We do 

 not know that it has ever been administered in- 

 ternally. That it will prove useful as a wash for 

 'he scab is more than probable. 



