Field and Forest 



DEVOTED TO 



GENERAL NATURAL HLSTORY. 



Vol. I.— JULY, 1875.— No. 2. 



A New Enemy to the Cucumber. 



Among the insects injurious to the cucumber there is a species of 

 Phakellura, figured and described in Mr. Riley's second report, which 



lives, in the larval state, in the fruit it- 

 self. The damage is done by their 

 boring cylindrical holes into the fruit, 

 and feeding upon its fleshy part, as 

 many as four having been found in a 

 medium sized cucumber. They attain 

 their full size in three or four weeks, 

 and transform in a silken web near the ground, and the moths are said 

 to appear in eight or ten days. 



A correspondent at Indian River, Florida, engaged largely in grow- 

 ing cucumbers, sent me a number of chrysalids of a small worm, a 

 few weeks ago, which had attacked his plants, first the bud, then, 

 working into the plant, and eventually killing them out root and branch, 

 in fact, he reports his crop a complete failure from the presence of 

 these insects. 



When the insects were received they had all spun up, or changed to 

 the pupa state, so we had not an opportunity of seeing the worm. The 

 pupa is .54 inch long, in color, reddish brown; the head portion quite 

 pointed, and the legs extending, in their envelope, nearly to the end 

 of the abdomen, quite free beyond the tips of the wings just visible un- 

 der the skin. The moths, or perfect insects, appeared in a few days, 

 and on examination proved to be Phakellura hyalinitalis, of Guen., a 

 much smaller species than that mentioned by Mr. Riley. 



