THE BOLL WORM FOOD-PLANTS. 363 



bores into the pod at some one point, and never leaves until the entire 

 contents are ruined. With the common Cow-peas of the South ( Vigna 

 and DoUcJioSy spp.), in the pods of which Heliothis is very often found 

 feeding, the work is frequently done in quite a different way. The 

 seeds are separated by marked fleshy partitions, and, rather than pierce 

 these partitions, the worm bores through to the outside and enters 

 again opposite to another pea. In the same manner it infe&ts Urythrina 

 herhacea — a leguminous plant which grows wild through the South, more 

 commonly near the coasi . (See Eeport on Cotton Insects, Department 

 of Agriculture, 1879, p. 29G.) In Europe it is found on Lucerne (Medi- 

 cago saiiva) according to Goureau {ibid.)^ and upon the Chick-pea (Clcer 

 arietimim) according to M. J. Fallou {Insectologie Agricole^ 1869, p. 205). 

 In the latter case the youug worms feed upon the leaves and the older 

 ones bore into the pod. 



CucuRBiTACEiE. — Amoiag the Cucurbitacese several useful plants are 

 injured by the Boll Worm. Glover, in 1870, records pumpkins {Gucur- 

 hita pepo), and Judge Johnson, in his report to us, mentions melons 

 {Cucumis melo) and summer squash [Cucurhita verrucosa). Mr. Glover, 

 as long ago as 185o, found the Boll Worm feeding in the flowers of 

 squash. (Glover, Patent Office Agricultural Eeport for 1855, p. 100.) 



Malvace^. — Professor French (Seventh Heport of the State Ento- 

 mologist of Illinois) reports the worm as feeding on the growing seed- 

 pods of the large-flowered Rose Mallow [Ribiscus grandiflora) along 

 streams in Illinois. lie has recently published the fact, however, that 

 the larva concerned in this iujury was not Heliothis, but a Pyralid.* 



The useful Okra or Gumbo plant (Hibiscus esculentus) is often de- 

 stroyed, according to Judge Johnson, by this larva. 



Other FOOD-PLANTS. — The families Iridaceae, Convolvulaceai, Urti- 

 cacese, E( sedacese, Geraniacese each contain a single food-plant of He- 

 liothis. Mrs. Treat, in her Vineland address on insects, quoted from in 

 the American Entomologist^ I, p. 43, mf^ntioned the Gladiolus, grown 

 frequenth in flower gardens, as being occasionally eaten in the spring 

 by the Boll W^Orm. Mr. Schwarz sevc^l times found the worm, at Selma, 

 Ala., feeding onthe green fruit of Ipomoea commutata. He remarks: "It 

 is a very curious sight to see this large larva with its head imbedded in 

 the comparatively small fruit of this plant.'' Mr. Goureau (Z. c.) men- 

 tions hemp [Cannabis) as one of the European food-plants, and Kali en- 

 bach (Pflanzenfeinde, &c., p. 42) states that the worm lives from June 

 to August on the Dyer's Mignonette {Reseda luteola). 



Within the last year the worms were received from Mr. Daniel W^ilter, 

 of Denver, Colo., as boring into the stems of his garden Geraniums, and 

 also eating the leaves of the same plant. 



These are, so far as we have been able to ascertain, all of the food-plants 

 of Heliotltis armigera yet known or at least yet recorded. Others will 

 undoubtedly be found from time to time, and it is not improbable that 

 the present list could be swelled into the hundreds by a diligent and 



