Eighth Report of the State Entomologist. 191 



from the maturing of the caterpillars and their entering the ground for 

 pupation. 



It is not improbable that this larva is cannibalistic at times. Mr. 

 Milmoe had inclosed about a dozen in a close-fitting box to send to me, 

 "but being forgotten for a day, when opened, to his surprise only two 

 remained. Pie had been told that the larger ones had been seen eating 

 the smaller in the fields. 



The first of the caterpillars received pupated June 16th, and disclosed 

 the moth, Agrotisypsilon, July 12th — a pupation of twenty-seven days. 

 A second became a pupa July 2d, and a third July 6th. 



The Stalk-borer, Gortyna nitela, as an External Feeder. 



Mr. H. H. Rich, of Hartford, Conn., has sent, with inquiries, a cater- 

 pillar which he had detected feeding on the tassels of his corn. It is 

 the larva of Gortyna nitela Guenee, probabl} T about three-fourths 

 grown, as it is at maturity somewhat over one inch in length. It is a 

 well-known pest of our gardens and fields, known under the common 

 name of "the stalk-borer," and unfortunately is one of those which makes 

 its attack upon a large number of food-plants, quite varied in their 

 character. In my First Report, where I have discussed the insect at con- 

 siderable length (pages 

 110-116), its food- plants, 

 in the stems of which it 

 lives, are given as follows: 

 Tomato, potato, spinach, 

 wheat, corn, dahlias, asters, 

 lilies, spiraea, salvia, milk- *- 2 



t , i -i t u Fig 37.— The stalk-borer, Gortyna nitela Gtuen. The 



Weed, castor bean, rhubarb, mo th and its caterpillar. (After Riley.) 



chenipodium, peach-twigs, currant-twigs, rag- weed, and hearts-ease. It 

 also eats the fruit of the tomato and strawberry, and bores into the cobs 

 of ears of corn, as well as in the stalk. The above list will serve to 

 show what a general feeder it is, and that it rarely appears except as an 

 internal borer in stalks, stems, and twigs. 



It has often been sent to me in potato stalks and in the stalks of 

 young corn, but I have never met with it before as an external feeder. 

 Walsh and Riley record it as boring through the cob of growing Indian 

 corn, and strangely confining itself to that portion of the ear, and also 

 as boring into the stem of the same plant. Miss E. A. Smith and 

 Professor French have recorded its operations in the stalk of young corn, 

 and other writers have mentioned like injuries from it. 



