20 



various flowers, and pine. Often serious injury is done to early toma- 

 toes and peas, and much complaint is made of injury to buds of flowers 

 and young' fruit of peaches, plums, prunes, etc., of which 50 or more 

 per cent are quite often scarred. Corn is generally infested. Hand 

 picking is largely practiced to protect orchard trees, and thorough 

 cleaning up for protecting vineyards. 



In Natal the pest is apparently less destructive. Mr. Claude Fuller, 

 formerl}" Government entomologist, has noted its injuries to corn, 

 Kafir corn, and tomatoes, but generally the damage is slight. 



In Australia the insect is very generally distributed over the cen- 

 tral parts, according to Mr. J. G. O. Tepper, of Adelaide, it being 

 one of the most common of the larger moths. The larv^ feed almost 

 indiscriminately, attacking wheat, barley, and oats while these crops 

 are 3^oung, and most other herbaceous plants in all stages, the former 

 crops being attacked at or near the ground, much after the manner of 

 cutworms. Native crows and magpies feed on the larvae, rendering 

 much service in this wdj. It is noted that native grasses are not 

 attacked. Several generations annual^ probably occur. 



Mr. Arthur M. Lea, writing concerning this same insecit in Austra- 

 lia, mentions an instance where the larvae, leaving the flowers of 

 "everlasting," on which they were feeding, appeared to migrate simul- 

 taneously in true arm3^-worm fashion, attacking a near-by paddock 

 of oats, which was completely destroyed. The ^ame gentleman states 

 that the bollworm is very rare in Tasmania, only two specimens hav- 

 ing been obtained during a period of four years. 



In Ceylon, Mr. E. Ernest Green, of the Royal Botanic Gardens, 

 writes that the bollworm does not there rank as a serious pest. The 

 larv^ are principally injurious to flowers, as rose buds, and to vege- 

 tables, as the fruit of Physalis peruviana, the Cape gooseberr3^ Hand 

 picking is the only method emplo3^ed in its control. 



In Japan, according to Mr. Yasuchi Nawa, of Gifu, the bollworm is 

 most injurious to tobacco, cotton not being especially injured. Other 

 plants attacked are flax, corn, cucurbits, and hemp {Ca7inahis saliva). 

 The insect is controlled by destroying the eggs by the use of kerosene 

 emulsion. Three or four generations occur annually. 



Attention should here be called to the occurrence in the cotton fields 

 of Egypt of an insect there known as the bollworm, which is, however, 

 a species quite different from the bollworm of the United States. The 

 Egyptian bollworm resembles our own mostly in its habit of feeding 

 on cotton bolls. Its life history presents numerous points of differ- 

 ence. Mr. George P. Foaden, in the Journal of the Khedival Agri- 

 cultural Society for May and June of 1899, page 940, gives an account 

 of this species under the name of Earias itisulana. 



