392 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVII. No. 1216 



has taken occasion to question several persons 

 who had made gardens in vacant lots and in 

 fields near the city and in all cases the slug 

 was reported to have heen present in numbers 

 sufficient to cause appreciable damage. In one 

 garden the slugs had eaten into the tubers to 

 such an extent as to destroy two thirds of the 

 potato. Several slugs were found in a single 

 potato and associated with them were many 

 wire worms (probably larvse of the beetle 

 Agriotes mancus Say) and sowbugs (isopods). 

 The wire worms have been reported as very 

 abundant in potatoes, both in Syracuse and in 

 Rochester, N. Y. Damage from the slug has 

 been reported from Rochester, Canandaigua 

 and Geneva. 



It is evident that this slug is becoming a 

 troublesome pest in garden truck farms and 

 small gardens and a problem arises as to the 

 best means of combating its ravages. It can 

 be controlled when its depredations are con- 

 fined to the surface plants by spreading fine 

 ashes about the plants, which cause the animal 

 to exhaust itself by the copious flow of mucus, 

 induced by the irritant action of the ashes. 

 But this will not affect those individuals that 

 enter the ground and attack the tuber below 

 the surface. It has been suggested that if the 

 grass surrounding the garden patch be kept 

 short it will prevent the slugs from hiding 

 near the garden during the day, the active time 

 of the species being at night. The placing of 

 boards about the garden will also act as a trap, 

 the slugs retiring beneath these boards during 

 the day when they may be collected and killed. 



This slug is one of the commonest snails in 

 western New York. In many parts of Syra- 

 cuse it is abundant after rains, crawling over 

 the sidewalks, leaving behind it a slimy, glis- 

 tening trail. Its tendency to adopt the prod- 

 ucts of the garden for food in place of its nat- 

 ural food indicates that it must be classed 

 among the agencies injurious to farm and gar- 

 den products. 



It may be of interest to note that a related 

 species of slug {Agriolimax campestris Bin- 

 ney) has been observed- to eat plant lice 



^F. M. Webster, Bull. 68, Ohio Agric. Exp. 

 Station, pp. 53-54, 1896. 



(Phorodon mahaleb Fousc.) in considerable 

 quantity. Under these circumstances it would 

 be placed among beneficial animals. Observa- 

 tions on the natural food of these small slugs 

 would be of interest and value. 



Frank Collins Baker 

 New York State College of Forestet, 

 Syracuse University 



the yellow clothes moth 

 Since my note on the yellow clothes moth 

 was published, I have learned with regret that 

 I overlooked a record of original observations 

 on this species by Professor Glenn W. Her- 

 rick, published in 1915, in his " Insects In- 

 jurious to the Household." It is a matter of 

 interest that the two accounts agree almost 

 exactly with respect to the details treated in 

 common. 



Professor Herrick had already noted the 

 common distribution of Tineola as compared 

 with Tinea, the number of eggs laid (one in- 

 dividual), the appearance of the egg, the 

 hatching period, the approximate pupal period, 

 and the fact that the first brood for each year 

 must be mainly derived from eggs of the pre- 

 ceding year. 



In regard to the latter point, it may be 

 added that, while as already noted, moths may 

 emerge in every month of the year, there are 

 two periods of much greater abundance. The 

 first begins about the end of April in New 

 York City and lasts through June. With the 

 estimated minimum growth stage of ten 

 weeks, it is unlikely that any of this first brood 

 respresent eggs of the same year. During the 

 summer, the flying stage was common enough 

 but nothing like that of the preceding months. 

 In late August again and through September 

 there was another period of abundance, the 

 result undoubtedly of the development of the 

 eggs of the first large brood of moths. Figur- 

 ing from the whole season it would appear a 

 safe conclusion that the average period of 

 active larval growth is about three months. 

 The actual growth periods, including the 

 winter season, are approximately three and one 

 half months (June-September 15), and eight 

 and one half months (Sept. 15- June). 



R. C. Benedict 



