270 



TITE ILLmOIS FAKMER. 



Sept. 



mouth and extend over to the back part of tie 

 head ; they approach each other in the middle 

 and again recede bedind The prominent siilea 

 are light ochreons chequered o'^er with very fine 

 dark !ints. There are a few hairs scatterei over 

 the front of the head and various parts of <he 

 body. 



HISTORY. 



The hi'-tory of this species must so far n- the 

 past is concerned, ever remain uncertain, on ac- 

 count of ihe difficulty of separating it from other 

 epei^ies. Bui its future history may be correctly 

 ■written as sufficient attention has been called to 

 it, to C! use correct descriptions and liistory of 

 its operations to be written and published. That 

 this s:ime species has made its appearance, in 

 this State, in vast numbers at different periods 

 reaching back as far as 1822 there can be 

 no doubt. But from the irregularity in the 

 time of its appearance, from the nature of 

 the insect and those congeneric with it, as 

 ■well a3 from various other facts, wj may con- 

 clude that it has no regular period for re appear 

 in such nu t-liers. ut that on the contrary it 

 appears annually as other species of the family 

 to which it belongs. 



The time of its appenrance varies with the lat- 

 itude in which it is found, having appeared in 

 Texas tliis season about the f;rst of March, in 

 Tennessee early in April, and in this (Jackson) 

 county, Illinois, about the 29th of April, farther 

 north it appeared somewhat later. 



The time of its first appearance in any given 

 locality I am imchned to think is q'tite regular, 

 but the length of i ■<• it conli'ues in the larva 

 state I do not think is uniform, at;d I will give 

 some of my reasons for thinking so. First . — 

 This year although they firtt appeared on a farm 

 adj' ining ou;- town (Murphysboro) .ibout 29th 

 April, yet young ones continued to appear for 

 more thnn two weeks on the same farm and in 

 the satre fi Ids ; and when they censed their ope- 

 rations and descended tnto the ground to change 

 to the pupa state tho.'e of very different siz s as 

 well as ag « comm-nced, at the same time, their 

 trunsformations And those that have favorable 

 circumstan es purrcunding them the entire length 

 of their lift' in the larva state increase consider- 

 ably in thicknes-', and at the latter end of this 

 Stage of their life Fonictimes cl ange color onl 

 markings, the lines b- coming dim and breaking 

 into dusky patche-s. 



Another reason is that the chrysalides vary 

 considerable in size, the fud grown being about 



five-"i£rhtlis of Mil inch in length orperhap' more. 



while others are under half an inch Ir eg. Though 

 as will hereafter be stated this difference in many 

 instarces may be owing to their being different 

 species. 



This difference in the length of time they re" 

 main in the larva state, as well as the difference 

 in their numbers at different seasons depends 

 much, in fact chiefly upon the state of the weath- 

 er, the comparative heat and moisture. 



And so far ns their history is known in this re- 

 gion (which reaches back some thirty years) they 

 have never appeared, in consider;ible nnnibers, 

 except of a cold, cloudy and somewhat backward 

 spring ; and so far as my observations go, which 

 extend through two seasons of their appearance, 

 it is generally a spring without many late inju- 

 rious frosts, and with an average or li tie more 

 than average moisture. This may have been ac- 

 cidental in this locality, and therefore I give it 

 with this restriction simply to call attention to it. 



In the Prairie Farmer of June 20lh, 1861, I 

 estimated the average length of their larva state 

 at three weeks. This estimate I now think was 

 too low, for after more thorough invettiaation 

 and a comparison of notes with others I am in- 

 clined to place the average at twenty-eight to 

 thirty days. 



They generally make their appearance in mea- 

 dows, ttiough this is not invariably the ca^e, for 

 I have known them to appear in yards and grassy 

 plots distinct and at considerable dist.iuce from 

 any meadow. That these worms are hatched out 

 in the spring their small size when they make 

 their appearance is sufficient to convince any ob- 

 server. The next question then will be, when 

 and wh^re are the eggs deposi'ed ? I think the 

 '' miller " or moth lays them early in the spring 

 (in this region in March), at the roots and on the 

 s.ems of grass. My reasons for this opinion are 

 as follows : A moth, very similar in appearance 

 to that produced from the "Army worm," ap- 

 peared in our meadows during last March in con- 

 siderable numbers. In OLe meadow in whieh the 

 worm appered in vast numbers, the moth was so 

 abundant that the proprietor stated to me that 

 with one sweep of his hat he could catch a hand- 

 ful. In mother meadow after the moth had dis- 

 appeared, and previous to the wo^ms hatching 

 out, a large spot in th«i field was burned over by 

 means of straw placed upon it ; when th:- worms 

 first appeartd in the field none were seen on the 

 humed di.-^trict. nnr did they appear there until 

 they had travelled thither. Again they have 

 been known to appear in ground that was under 



