58 



operated at Augusta. Ga.. where the species was rare, till late in 

 August, as previously stated. 



An mm corded wild food plant. — In response to inquiry. Mr. Simons 

 stated that this webworm was first noticed on "pussley," or "cutter 

 grass.*' otherwise purslane. Portal aca oleracea; it was then noticed on 

 cabbage beds, and afterwards extended its ravages to fields of cabbage 

 and other crucifers. In confinement at this ofiice larva? readily fed 

 upon purslane. 



Mr. Simons writes that the larva? feed upon the inner portion of 

 the leaves of young cabbages between the inner and outer integuments 

 or skins of the leaf, and that, when nearly full grown, they usually 

 spin up a web about the heart of the plant which they enter. Speci- 

 mens of young cabbage plants received about that time showed that 

 larva? had entered the head singly and bored down into the stalk, their 

 presence there being manifested by webbed-up masses of dark excre- 

 ment. 



In our rearing cages the larva? fed almost exclusively on the under 

 surface of young cabbage, the youngest eating away the epidermis 

 and parenchyma in small irregular patches, leaving one eroded space 

 and attacking another place, very often crawling in at a hole, which 

 they gnaw, and feeding, as our correspondent describes, between the 

 two outer integuments. As the larva? grow larger, at about the first 

 molt, they begin to cover their work with webbing, and this, with the 

 excrement which adheres to it. forms a more or less perfect place of 

 concealment for them. 



APPROXIMATE LIFE HISTOPT. 



From the material received from South Carolina the moths obtained 

 by rearing served as a basis for the completion of the life history of 

 the species as nearly as this could be done without visiting the prem- 

 ises Avhere infestation occurred. 



From the received larva?, of what is at present considered the first 

 generation of this species, moths were obtained July 2'2. the approxi- 

 mate date of the appearance of the second brood of the insect. A very 

 considerable number of the remainder issued a few days later. A 

 number of the moths of this lot were placed in a rearing cage July 24. 

 when egg deposit began. The ascertained period of the egg at this 

 time, as was previously stated, was three days. Pupa? were first 

 obtained August 14. which gives eighteen days as the larval period. 

 The pupal period lasted six days, which brings the entire life cycle for 

 this time to twenty- seven days. The weather for this period was sea- 

 sonably hot, and this is not far from the minimum period that would 

 be required for development in the Southern States also. 



