82 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



good as sound roots. (II.) Preventive remedies consist of applications of strong smelling 

 substances by which the characteristic odor of the carrots is masked. For this purpose, 

 sand tainted with coal oil or carbolic acid, has been used to good effect. Kerosene emul- 

 sion diluted 1 to 10 and sprayed along the drills by means of a knapsack sprayer, also 

 gave comparative immunity. In localities where the fly is known to have occurred, the 

 ordinary precaution of sowing carrots as far as possible from the infested land will occur 

 to all growers Where carrots have been stored away during the winter in sand or earth, 

 this soil should be treated to destroy the puptc, which leave the roots and enter it to pass 

 their pupal stage. A convenient method is to put the soil into a wet manure pit, or, if 

 this cannot be done, it might be buried in a deep hole, specially dug for the purpose, and, 

 after covering up, the top soil should be firmly tramped down. 



The Corn-Worm (Heliothis armiger, Hbn.). Several correspondents have com- 

 plained of the unusual abundance this autumn of the caterpillars of what Prof. Lugger 

 calls the Sweet- Corn Moth or Tassel Worm. These are both good names, but the insect 

 is far more generally known as the Corn-worm. It is also the same as the notorious 

 Boll Worm of the cotton, to which crop it frequently does great damage. Unfortunately, 

 no very good, practical remedy has been discovered for application in the cotton field. 

 The injuries of the Corn-worm are in Canada almost confined to the fruit of tomatoes and 

 to sweet corn, particularly the late varieties. Late in October, Mr. C. L. Stephens, the 

 Secretary of the Orillia Horticultural Society, sent specimens of the caterpillars and 

 injured ears of corn, with the information that the caterpillars had been very destructive, 

 injuring as much as 95 per cent, of the ears of both sweet corn and yellow field corn. It 

 was a new outbreak in the locality, and was the cause of considerable anxiety. Specimens 

 were sent also from Sombra (Lambton Co., Ont.), and two rather bad occurrences came 

 under my notice at Ottawa. The caterpillars do, not appear until late in the season. 

 In the month of October they were found of all sizes eating the young grains of corn, 

 mostly near the tips of the ears. There were sometimes five or six caterpillars in a single 

 ear, many of which were rendered quite unfit for the table. As the larvae approached 

 full growth, they would occasionally eat their way out of one ear by a neat round hole 

 and travel to another ear. They were very variable in color, from 1^ to 1£ inches in 

 length, of a pale-greenish or dark-brown color, marked with longitudinal dark stripes 

 and with a conspicuous stigmatal band, white mottled with pink, the body bears the 

 ordinary tubercles, which are distinct and black, each one supporting a slender bristle. 

 The whole upper surface is marbled with white and the whole surface velvety, by reason 

 of numberless and very short bristles, black and white in about equal numbers. When 

 full grown, these caterpillars eat their way out of the ears and, entering the soil, spin 

 cocoons, within which they change to chestnut- brown pupae. This moth is by no means 

 a common species in Canada, and all the specimens I have seen have been taken late in 

 the year. Prof. Lugger states that the insect does not winter in Minnesota, but that 

 all are killed late in the fall. This, he points out, would mean that the insect has to be 

 re- introduced every summer from the South, where it can successfully hibernate. Whether 

 this is also the case in Canada, I am not sure, but I think that some must with us pass 

 the winter as pupae. The moth, like the caterpillar, is very variable in color. It is usu- 

 ally of a pale, dull, ochreous yellow, with variable olive or ruddy markings on the fore- 

 wings. The yellowish hind wings have a broad black band and are edged with pink. 

 These moths expand a little more than an inch and a half. The caterpillars of the Corn 

 Worm feed, besides, upon a great many other kinds of plants than those mentioned, 

 such as pumpkins, tobacco, beans, peas and a large number of weeds and garden plants. 



Remedies. — The only remedy 'which can be suggested is the hand-picking of the 

 caterpillars. The destruction of the moths by lantern traps has been also recommended : 

 these consisting of a lamp standing in an open pan containing water and a little coal oil. 

 These traps are placed at night in fields where the caterpillars have been abundant. 

 When an ear of corn is attacked, the silk shows the effect of the injury going on beneath 

 the husks by being discolored prematurely. As soon as this is noticed, the leaves of the 

 husk should be pulled back and the marauders destroyed. Fall ploughing will, doubtless, 

 break up the cocoons and expose many of the pupae to various enemies. 



