THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



23 



bly sixteen legs, uo matter how small it maybe. 

 Unlike this last insect, it becomes a pupa (Fig. 

 12, b) within the potato stalk which it inhab- 

 its ; and it comes out in the beetle state about 

 the last of August or the beginning of Septem- 

 ber. The stalk inliabited by the larva almost 

 always wilts and dies. Tlie perfect beetle, like 

 many other snout-beetles, must of course live 

 through the winter to reproduce its species in 

 the following spring. 



Miss Morris found that "in many potato flelds 

 in the neighborhood of Germantown, Penn., 

 every stem was infested by these insects, caus- 

 ing tlie premature decay of the vines, and giv- 

 ing to them the appearance of having been 

 scalded." In the fore part of July, 18G8, we 

 found a potato patch belonging to Mr. Ilolcomb 

 of Cobden, 111., utterly ruined by this snout- 

 bectlc, many vines having a dozen larviD in 

 them ; and in the same year we have met with it 

 quite commonly in various parts of Missouri, 

 bo far as is at present known, it attacks no plant 

 but tlie potato. 



The Potato-worm or Tomato-worm, 

 {Sphinx 5 — maculata, Ilaworth). — This well 

 known insect, tlie larva of which is illustrated 

 on our front page (Pig. 10, A), is usually called 

 the Potato-worm, but it is far commoner on the 

 closely allied tomato, the foliage of wliich it oft- 

 en clears off very completely in particular spots 

 in a single night. Many persons are afraid to 

 handle tliis worm, from an absurd idea that it 

 has the power of stinging with the horn on its 

 tail . We have handled hundreds of them with per- 

 fect impunity, and for the small sum of one cent, 

 will undertake to insure the whole population 

 of the United States against being stung by this 

 insect, either with the conspicuous horn on its 

 tail or with any hidden weapon that it may have 

 concealed about its person. In fact, this dreadful 

 looking horn is not peculiar to the Potato-worai, 

 but is met with in almost all the larva? of the 

 large and beautiful group to which it belongs 

 (/SjoAmx family). It seems to have no special 

 use, but, like the bunch of hair on the breast of 

 the turkey cock, to be a mere ornamental ap- 

 pendage. 



When full-fed, which is usually about the last 

 of August, the Potato-worm buiTOws under 

 ground and shortly afterwards transfoims into 

 the pupa state (Fig. 10, B) . The pupa is often 

 dug up in the spring from ground where toma- 

 toes or potatoes were gi-own in the preceding 

 season ; and most persons that meet with it sup- 

 pose that the singular, jug-handled appeiuUge 

 at one end of it is its tail. In reality, liowever, 

 it is the tongue-case, and contains the long plia- 



ble tongue which the future moth will employ 

 in lapping up the nectar of the flowers, before 

 which, in the dusky gloom of some warm, balmy 

 summer's evening, it hangs for a few moments 

 suspended in the air, like the glorified ghost of 

 some departed botanist. 



The moth itself (Fig. 10, C) was formerly con- 

 founded with the Tobacco-worm moth (Sphinx 

 Carolina, Linnseus) , which indeed it very closely 

 resembles, having the same series of orange col- 

 ored spots on each side of the abdomen. The 

 gray and black markings, however, of the wings 

 difi'er perceptibly in the two species ; and in tlic 

 Tobacco-worm moth there is always a more or 

 less faint white spot or dot near the centre of 

 the front wing, which is never met with in the 

 other species. In Connecticut and other north- 

 ern States where tobacco is grown, the Potato- 

 worm often feeds upon the leaves of the tobacco 

 plaut,tlie true Tobacco-worm being unknown in 

 those latitudes. In the more southerly States, 

 on the other hand, and in Mexico and in the 

 West Indies, the true Potato-worm is unknown, 

 and it is the Tobacco-worm that the tobacco 

 growers liavc to flglit. While in the interme- 

 diate country both species may frequently be 

 captured on the wing in the same garden and 

 upon the same evening. In other words, the 

 Potato-worm is a northern species, the Tobacco- 

 worm a southern species ; but on the confines of 

 the two districts exclusively inhabited by each, 

 they intermingle in varying proportions, ac- 

 cording to the latitude. 



The Striped Blister-beetle {Lyttavittata,) 

 Fabr. — The three insects figured and described 

 above infest the potato plant in the larva state 

 only, the two first of them burrowing internally 

 in the stalk or stem, the third feeding upon its 

 leaves externally. Of these three the first and 

 third are moths or scaly-winged insects (order 

 Lepidoptera) , so called because the wings of all 

 the insects belonging to tins large gi-oup are 

 covered with minute variously-colored scales, 

 which, on the slightest touch, rub off and rob 

 the wing of all its brilliant coloring. The sec- 

 ond of the three, as well as the next four foes of 

 the potato, which we shall notice, are all of them 

 beetles or shelly-wiugcd insects (order Coleop- 

 tei'a), so called because what would nor- 

 mally be the front wing is transformed 

 here into a more or less hard and shelly 

 wing-case, which, instead of being used 

 as an organ of flight, is employed merely 

 to protect and cover the hind wings in re- 

 pose. To look at any beetle, indeed, almost 

 any inexperienced person would suppose that 

 it has got no wings at all ; but in reality nearly 



