198 



MAINE STATE COLLEGE 



land should be plowed early and the natural food of the worms 

 destroyed. While they are starving, green food, as grass, clover, 

 cabbage leaves, etc., may be put in bunches through the field. 



The worms collect to eat this food and crawl into the ground 

 near by when done feeding or secrete themselves under the traps, 

 and can readily be dug out or caught and killed. In the poison 

 ball trap system the food is poisoned, thus saving the trouble of 

 digging or searching for the worms. 



Prof. Cook poisoned clover and then forked it from a wagon in 

 small bundles, at intervals through the field. Prof. Riley recom- 

 mends that the food will keep fresh longer if tied in balls or loose 

 masses. Another party put poisoned cabbage and turnip leaves 

 in rows fifteen to twenty feet apart through the field. The food 

 can be poisoned with Paris green or London purple, preferably in 

 suspension in water, though some have mixed it with plaster or 

 flour. 



The Cotton-wood Dagger. 



Apetala lepusculina, (Gue.) 

 (Ord. Lepidoptera : Fam. Noctuidas.) 

 The larva of the above species was received from Mr. W. F. 

 Phinney, Staudish, Me., and said to be feeding upon the leaves 



of the door-yard plan- 

 tain. So far as we 

 know, it has never be- 

 fore been reported as 

 feeding upon species 

 of Plantago. As the 

 name indicates, it usu- 

 ally feeds upon the 

 cottonwoocl, Populas 

 monilifera. 



This species may be 

 known by the follow- 

 ing description : 



Larvce, when young, 

 almost white with a distinct black dorsal line, short black tufts 

 and sparsely covered with white hairs. When full grown, green, 

 ish yellow and thickly covered with long, soft, bright yellow hairs, 



