64 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



to obtain food, and for this reason were thought by some to be the army worm One 

 correspondent wrote, "The green leaves and the vines themselves were eaten, but my peas 

 were too nearly ripe before they were attacked to be much injured. I never before saw 

 anything like it. The ground was literally alive with the crawling insects. We put 



Fig. 64. 



Fig. 65. 



Paris green on the turnips, and this doubtless helped, but the insects were so numerous 

 that one set after another took the place of those killed. Turnip3 near peas were injured 

 most ; they put forth a new set of leave?, but the growth of the roots was stunted, and 

 they were only half a crop." 



Turnips were also slightly injured by the Zebra caterpillar (Sfamestra picta, Harris) 

 which is a very general feeder, being found also on cabbages, potatoes, clover, celery, lucerne 

 and many other plants. The caterpillar is a most showy insect (Fig. 65a); when full 

 grown nearly two inches in length, velvety black on the back with the sides gaily orna- 

 mented with golden yellow lines connected by wavy white threads ; the head and feet are 

 chestnut red. When ready to transform the caterpillar spins a loose cocoon of silk with 

 earth mixed with it and changes to a black chrysalis. The moth (Fisj. 656) has glossy 

 brown upper wings and the lower ones are whitish. The eggs are laid in large clusters 

 beneath leaves and seem to be, at Ottawa at any rate, much more infested with egg 



parasites than those of almost any other insect In Sep- 

 tember, 1892, I found upon a plot of Bokhara clover 

 (Melilotus alba, Lam.) hundreds of clusters of the eggs 

 of this moth, which were so much parasitised by two 

 minute hymenopterous insects, Trichogramma pretiosa, 

 (Fig. 66), and a new species of Telonomnvs, that not one 

 per cent, of the eggs gave caterpillars. The only remedies 

 which can be applied for the Zebra caterpillar are 

 arsenical mixtures, and this species seems to be particu- 

 larly resistent to the effects of all poisons so far experi- 

 mented with. There are two broods in the year, the laUer of which may be noticed 

 on fine days long after the first severe frosts. 



Vegetables — In gardens the regular yearly pests such as cut worms, turnip fha, 

 Colorado potato beetle, and the cabbage caterpillars have required attention. The spe3ies 

 of cutworm whose injuries have been most conspicuous, has again this year been the red- 

 back cut-worm (Carneades ochrogaster, Gn.) Tnis is a large and widely distributed species 

 which feeds upon almost every kind of succulent vegetation. It was particularly de3truc- 

 tive to newly set cabbages and tomatoes and to young beet root, as well as many annuals 

 in the flower garden. Careful trial was made this year of the poisoned bran remedy, and 

 good results were obtained. Bran or oat-meal was moistened with sugar in water suf- 

 ficiently to allow of being ladled out with a spoon. Into this sufficient Paris green was 



