j6 REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST IQ2I 



Green clover worm (Plathypena scabra Fab.) . There 

 was an unprecedented outbreak of this insect in New York State in 

 1 91 9, it causing general and somewhat serious injury to bean foliage 

 in midsummer. Observations and reports indicate general injury 

 not only in this State but also in Massachusetts and Connecticut 

 and apparently much more serious damage in North Carolina and 

 Virginia. This insect is a recognized enemy of clover and alfalfa, 

 the turning to beans being unusual. 



The light-green, white-striped caterpillars are only 1^2 inches in 

 length when full grown. They eat irregular holes in the foliage 

 and when numerous may reduce the plants to loosely webbed masses 

 of skeletonized leaves. They have a peculiar semilooping motion 

 due to the fact that there are only four pairs of prolegs or body 

 legs ; they thus approach the condition found in the well-known 

 looping canker worms or measuring worms and their allies. The 

 caterpillars wriggle rapidly and usually drop to the ground when 

 disturbed. The development is very rapid and within 10 days the 

 outbreak may be at its height, the decline beginning in about 2 

 weeks. 



Dusting or spraying is the most effective method of checking this 

 insect. Owing to its rapid development, as mentioned above, the 

 poison should be applied very promptly and preferably before there 

 has been material injury. Experiments conducted in North 

 Carolina show that powdered arsenate of lead, used at the rate of 

 1 pound to 8 pounds of lime, killed the caterpillars and did not 

 injure the plants. 



Leather-jackets (Pedecia albivitta Walk.) . A number 

 of the yellowish slaty gray maggots of this crane fly were received 

 under date of June 10, 1919, from H. G. Chapin, county agricul- 

 tural agent, Watkins, accompanied by the statement that they were 

 found in large numbers in an oat field near a small brook, and 

 directions for control measures were requested. The probabilities 

 are that an appreciable amount of damage was being caused though 

 nothing further was learned regarding the case. We are indebted 

 to Prof. C. P. Alexander of the Illinois state laboratory of natural 

 history for the specific identification. 



The larvae varied in length from 2.8 to 4 cm and in diameter from 

 4 to 5 mm, the larger size being most prevalent. The following 

 description presents characters of the nearly full-grown maggots. 



Larva. Length 4 cm. Diameter .5 cm. Color a yellowish slaty 

 gray. Segmentation rather distinct. Head indeterminate. Antennae 

 long, slender, narrowly conical, somewhat curved, with a length 



