324 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 390. 



contained in jars. The seeds are bound together with a 

 silken web in which galleries are left. " 



The late B. D. Walsh, in the Praclical Enloniologisl, vol. 

 ii., July, 1867, p. no, calls it the Peach Worm, and says 

 that dried peaches are often so much infested as to become 

 Worthless. His observation of it was probably made in 

 Illinois, where he then lived. He also states that the larva 

 was considerably preyed upon by a small Ichneumon-fly 

 and by Chelifer oblongus. Say, a small scorpion -like spider. 



In the American Enlomologist and Botanist for December, 

 1S70, p. 374, Professor C. V. Riley notes that a correspon- 

 dent in Springfield, Illinois, found the larvre living in old 

 beehives and eating bee-bread and detritus, and also ob- 

 serves that the insect has been bred from dried roots of 

 Dandelion, 



In 1880, the same author, in the American Entomologist, 

 vol. iii., p. 229, answers inquiry and specimens received 

 from West Boylston, Massachusetts, where the larvae were 

 found in a sack used to hold oats, corn, meal and "shorts." 

 In his answer. Professor Riley says : "This worm is almost 

 omnivorous and feeds with equal relish on all sorts of dried 

 animal and vegetable substances, being, however, particu- 

 larly fond of grains and fruits. We have found it quite 

 injurious to old English walnuts and pecans, the larva 

 always eating out at the suture at the base of the nut before 

 spinning its cocoon. It is likewise to be found in cinna- 

 mon bark, while if it once gets into a cabinet of insects it 

 does much injury by feeding upon the mounted specimens. 

 It also injures old books that are not often handled. It 

 cannot, of course, multiply in grain or meal that is kept 

 well protected and fresh, or m sacks that are in constant 

 use." In Insect Life, vol. ii. (1889), p. 171, Professor 

 Riley gives the figure which is reproduced on this page, 

 and says of the insect : " We first raised it upon wheat 

 at St. Louis, in October, 1870. Larvae have been sent to 

 us from a meal-sack at Boylston, Massachusetts ; we have 

 reared it from corn from Guatemala ; larva; and moths 

 were received from a firm of manufacturing chemists of 

 Detroit, Michigan, who had found them crawling about 

 over sacks containing roots of Dandelion — moths, in fact, 

 being found in the bags ; we found numerous larva; infest- 

 ing wheat in the Atlanta E.xposition building in 1884 ; 

 large numbers of larvae were also found in a jar contain- 

 ing Chickasaw plums at the same exposition ; larvae were 

 received from Ripley, Mississippi, on two occasions in 

 1885, some of which were said to have been found feeding 

 on sugar in barrels ; one specimen was bred from dry 

 Opuntia from Te.xas ; larvae were received from Detroit, 

 found among old books; larvae of all sizes were found 

 infesting Pecan nuts in St. Louis, in September, 1872 ; 

 moths were bred by Dr. A. W. Hofmeister, in Iowa, from 

 cinnamon bark ; moths were bred from English walnuts in 

 St. Louis in 1876, and the species in all states was found 

 abundantly in a wheat warehouse in Ale.xandria, Virginia, 

 in 1883." 



It has been found infesting stored seeds of Lettuce in 

 New Jersey, and at the Arnold Arboretum it has been 

 destructive to the dried seeds of many trees and shrubs. 

 Erom the foregoing records of its habits it is not strange to 

 find Ephestia interpunctella in the role of a herbarium pest. 

 During the past three years the larvas have been quite 

 troublesome among dried herbarium specimens, particu- 

 larly among the duplicates, at the Arnold Arboretum. The 

 flowers and fruits are especially liable to damage, and are 

 sometimes completely eaten, excepting the very hard or 

 stony parts, and young leaves are also often destroyed. If, 

 on drying, such fruits as nuts crack a little, the larvte easily 

 gain entrance and eat out the interior. Thus far the pest 

 has chiefly troubled the dry fruits and unprotected dupli- 

 cates of herbarium specimens, and the evidence of its 

 ability to destroy has been so well marked as to induce 

 precautions for protection and preservation. Herbarium 

 specimens treated with a solution of corrosive sublimate do 

 not appear to have been much affected by the pest, but fur- 

 ther experience must be had before it can be proved that 



this remedy is as useful against the Ephestia as it is es- 

 teemed to be in preventing the ravages of other kinds of 

 herbarium depredators. 



The larva or worm is of a pale or dull white color and 

 about half an inch long when fully grown. It has a brown- 

 ish yellow head and brownish patch close behind it, and 

 the body is dotted with microscopically minute dark- 

 colored spots, from each of which arises a hair. A more or 

 less abundant mass of silken threads is usually spun 

 among the fragments of grains or other substance upon 

 which the larva; have been feeding. Upon attaining full 

 growth the larva forms a slight loose cocoon of dull white 

 silk, generally in such places as in the folds of cloth, be- 

 tween contiguous objects or in any place where some 

 slight concealment or shelter is afforded, and where it 

 changes to a slender pale yellowish or brownish yellow 

 chrysalis from one-fourth to one-third of an inch long. 



I'he little moth which comes from this chrysalis is a 

 slippery little creature, which, when walking, makes fre- 

 quent little skips or jumps, and when at rest with folded 

 wings it averages about three-eighths of an inch in length 

 from head to tip of wings. The wings expand from about 

 half an inch to nearly two-thirds of an inch across when 

 fully expanded, there being a noticeable variation in the 

 size of the moths. The moth may be readily identified by 

 the basal or inner ends of its front or upper wings being of 

 a yellowish white or dull cream color, while the outer ends 

 for considerably more than half the length of the wings are 

 of an indistinct reddish gray, a magnifier showing some 

 irregular blotches of a dull tawny yellow color. 



The hind or under wings 

 are white, with a somewhat 

 satiny glossy lustre. There 

 appear to be two or three 

 broods of this insect during a 

 single season, and the broods 

 seem to overlap more or less. 

 In .a warmed room the moths 

 may be found flying as early 

 as February, and from this 

 time onward throughout the 

 spring and summer individuals 

 may be found at almost any 

 time, but, of course, in greatest 

 abundance at the periods when 

 the majority of the moths of 

 each brood are developed, 

 these seasons apparently being about the months of May, 

 August and October. 



Benzine or naphtha applied with a small hand syringe or 

 sprinkler will kill every larva with which it comes in con- 

 tact, and it possesses the advantage of evaporating quickly 

 and leaving no discoloration. An interesting little ichneu- 

 mon, Habrobracon honestor, has been found parasitic upon 

 the larva^ 



The accompanying illustration is from a cut loaned by 

 the Department of Agriculture. r n r h 



Arnold Ai l.ciretum, ./• '^- J'^Cti. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Opuntia fulgida. 



OPUNTIA FULGIDA, generally known throughout the 

 south-west under the name Cholla, is one of the most 

 interesting plants on the Tucson plains. This remarkable 

 Cactus evidently reaches its greatest development in south- 

 ern Arizona, where it not infrequently attains a height of 

 fifteen feet, with a trunk from eight to twelve inches 

 in diameter. (See figure, page 325.) It is strictly a 

 plains plant, being seldom seen on the foot-hills or 

 mountains. In Arizona its range extends as far north 

 as the great rim which separates the Colorado plateau 

 from the southern plains, and from here it extends 

 southward deep into Mexico. In this territory it is con- 

 fined almost entirely to Pima, Maricopa and Pinal coun- 



Fig. 45, — Ephestia interpunctella. 



(1, Larva. /; Pupa. c. Moth. (A Head 



and thoracic joints of larva, 



all enlarged. 



