604 
Remedy.—Clean cultivation. In winter, dress limbs with No. 6; 
later on, 15 (see pp. 527-529), or powdered sulphur. Two or three 
dressings during spring and early summer. 
Potato Mots (Lita Solanella, Boisd). 
A. M. Lea, writing of this pest in the Agricultural Journal, 
August, 1895, states that this is perhaps the worst insect pest the 
potato-growers have to contend against, and says, where in numbers, 
it will not infrequently destroy almost the entire crop, its tunnels 
filled with excrement going through the tubers in all directions and 
rendering them unfit for human consumption; it also attacks and 
does very considerable damage to the leaves of tobacco, and is ocea- 
sionally seen in tomatoes. 
Seed potatoes often suffer very severely, the larve bore their 
way into the eyes and entirely destroy their germinating power. It 
is not only that the tubers are attacked, the larve preferring the 
leaves to the tubers, as where tubers have been accidentally exposed 
they had been seldom found to be attacked, whilst the leaves were 
swarming with the larve. When the tops die off or are cut down 
by frosts, however, a change takes place, as the larve desert the 
leaves in large numbers and wander about the fields, entering any 
tubers they may come across, even entering frostbitten ones. In 
captivity they will attack fresh leaves in preference to the tubers. 
It is therefore manifest that the crop should be dug before the tops 
become so dry as to drive the potato-moth caterpillars down to the 
tubers. Bag the potatoes before night, the moth being nocturnal 
and laying her eggs when dusk comes. Do not place haulms or 
tops in the mouths of the bags as is often done. 
When depositing her eggs on growing plants the moth usually 
places them close together on the inner side of a leaf, close to the 
main or one of the smaller ribs; the larva on hatching immediately 
eats its way into the leaf, hollowing it out in patches, and leaving 
only the skins of the leaf, which then presents a patchy appearance; 
the larve will often leave one part of a leaf to go to another, and 
it is in eating their way in, that numbers may be poisoned. 
The larva is a small, pale, dirty-green caterpillar, with a brown 
head, and when full grown is about half an inch in length. The 
pupa or chrysalis is pale brown in colour, and is enclosed in a small 
silken cocoon, which is nearly always covered with dirt. The moth 
itself is a small grey insect (the front wings darker than the hind 
ones), a little more than half an inch across the expanded wings. 
Remedies——Sprinkle with No. 13. Store underground if pos- 
sible. Three ounces in 10 gallons of water. 
A parasitic ichneumon wasp is reported from the Cape by 
Loundsberry. 
