Il8 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM | 



ate from minute tubercles; venter mostly yellowish; true legs 

 whitish transparent; prolegs yellowish green; abdominal seg- 

 ments I, 2, 6, 7 and 8, apodal. 



Pupa. Length 6 mm, slender, yellowish green, the dorsum of 

 the head a brownish shade, that of the abdominal segments 

 brownish, the color being distinctly darker on segments 2 tO' 6. 

 Antennal cases long, extending beyond the tip of the abdomen, 

 those of the posterior legs to the penultimate segment, those of 

 the yellowish green wing cases to the fifth abdominal segment. 



Exuvia. Length 6 mm, slender, whitish, protruding from a 

 cocoon such as that described above. Antennal cases extremely 

 long, slender, multiarticulate; dorsum of the abdomen slightly 

 chitinized and rather thickly set with chitinous dots. 



Sooty Crambus (Crambus caliginosellus Clem.) . 

 A number of these grass webworm caterpillars were received 

 under date of June 21, 191 1 from Mr R. L. Skinner, Greenwich, 

 N. Y., accompanied by samples of the work and a statement to 

 the effect that they had destroyed a field of popcorn. He also 

 adds that he had similar trouble in this field several years before. 

 There was serious and somewhat general injury by grass web- 

 worms in 1905, corn planted upon sod or in the vicinity of grass 

 suffering severely and even grassland being badly affected. 

 The full-grown webworm caterpillars appear very much alike, 

 being dull whitish or purplish with a darker head and about 

 three-quarters of an inch in length. The young caterpillar of 

 the sooty Crambus has a pale amber head and is a dirty trans- 

 lucent white with irregular, reddish spots on the middle of the 

 body. Scattered, light colored hairs occur above the head and 

 the bod}^ 



The female may deposit as many as one hundred .and seventy-five 

 eggs, which are dropped indiscriminately. The partly grown cater- 

 pillars winter in the protection of grass stubble, and in plowed 

 grassland commence feeding upon the corn as it appears above the 

 ground. Some stalks may be nearly girdled and the worms are 

 frequently embedded in cavities they excavate. As many as thirty 

 caterpillars have been found in a hill, some stalks of which were 

 entirely destroyed, while in others the plants were small, yellow and 

 sickly. 



Injuries to corn and other crops by this insect and its allies 

 must be considered more or less accidental, especially as the 

 depredations are usually more marked on the borders of fields ad- 

 jacent to grass than elsewhere. An excellent preventive is to 

 keep corn and other crops liable to suffer from these pests as 



