■|.68 Notes on Insects. 



districts, indeed it is recorded that in Sweden, towards the mid- 

 dle of tliG last century, the ravages of the larvas were so extensive 

 that whole meadows appeared white and dry, as though a fire had 

 passed over them. In some parts of England spots of a mile 

 square have been observed totail}^ covered by them, and tlie grass 

 devoured to the root ; and Mr. Wailes has recorded in the Ento- 

 mological Magazine, that in one year at least fifty acres of grass 

 upon SkiddaAv, v/ere so completely devastated, and the line of 

 devastation so clearly marked, that even from the town of Keswick 

 the progress of the larvae down the Mountain could be distinctly 

 noticed. Vast quantities of Sooks flocked to the spot to feed upon 

 the delicious repast afi'orded by these caterpillars, but so greatly 

 was the vegetation destroyed, that even several years afterwards 

 the extent of their ravages was distinctly visible. ' Of course,' adds 

 Mr. Wailes, ' the quality of the newly grown herbage was ma- 

 terially unproved,' thus affording another instance of indirect 

 advantages derived from insects;" Humphrey and Westwood, p. 

 113. Their ravages were noticed by Linneus, who says they will 

 not eat Alopecurus praterds, Trifolium j^ratensis. This is a good 

 hint to our farmers to enquire whether any species or varieties of 

 grass, wheat, &c., are obnoxious to the American Cutworms, and 

 if any are discovered, by growing them exclusively for a few 

 years, in snch places as are most infested by the worms, they 

 would probably in a great measure disappear. Dr. Fitch says 

 that " he does not think the fertility of the soil or the kind of 

 manure v/hich is applied to it, has any influence upon them, ex- 

 cepting in making plants more succulent ; for it is vegetation of 

 this character which appears to be their favorite food. We all 

 know these worms are common in our highly manured gardens 

 and I have never found them more plentiful than on one occasion 

 among beans planted upon a hill side so barren that it was thought 

 nothing else could be raised there." In another place he also 

 gives some interesting particulars, . extracted from the Albany 

 Cultivator, relative to a Hymenopterous insect, (probably a 

 vSphex) which collects the larvae to store her nest with them, as 

 food for her ofl'spring. 



The history of these insects appears to be as follows : — Tlie 

 Moths come forth toward the end of the summer, and the females 

 deposit their eggs in the ground ; these hatch in a short time, 

 and the young larvse commence feeding on roots of grass, &c., 

 until the frosts of autumn set in, when they bury themselves in 



