A NEW WEBWORM ENEMY OF CRUCIFEROUS PLANTS. 53 



from the bud have grown three inches or more by hatching time, and 

 the young larva finds itself not in the bud where it can do great harm 

 but three inches out on the leaf. There it spins its web, and as it 

 remains there for some time before forming a second web the harm it 

 does to the growing leaf is trifling. 



One reason advanced by Mr. Willet's friend for the severe injuries 

 committed by this species in 1898, was that during the summer there 

 were four or five weeks of almost daily rain. Young garden vegetables 

 in that time made little growth and many young roots rotted. As a 

 consequence that summer the hatching larva was not three inches out 

 on the growing leaf but directly in the bud, which it at once devoured, 

 thus destroying the plant. Injury was worse on turnips than on cab- 

 bage, this being due to the slower growth of the former crop. Such 

 vegetables as grew rapidly in spite of the rains were not seriously 

 harmed by this webworm. The gentleman whose theory we have just 

 propounded believes that in years of forward good-growing plant 

 weather there need be no great fear of injury by this insect. 



THE SPECIES IDENTIFIED. 



Some of the captured as well as bred moths were received at this 

 time, and later some of the moths issued in our rearing cages, begin- 

 ing November 21. They have been compared with material in the 

 National Museum and found to be identical with Hellida undalis Fab., 

 as identified by both Professor Fern aid and M. Eagonot. The National 

 Museum collection includes two specimens labeled "Texas, Belfrage," 

 and the species was described from a single female, also from Texas, by 

 Dr. Hulst (Trans. Amer. Entom. Soc, vol. xin, p. 149) under the name 

 Botis rogatalis. The type specimens were perhaps from the same source 

 as those in the museum. In any case these are all the available data 

 regarding the occurrence of the species in Texas, and some slight doubt 

 attaches to its actual capture in that State, or at least to its permanent 

 occurrence there. 



In the museum collection is a third specimen collected by Mr. D. W. 

 Coquillett in Los Angeles County, Cal., in October of 1891 or 1892. 

 This was supposedly taken at light in the city of Los Angeles, and it 

 seems probable that the species is also introduced at that poiut. 



One of the Texas-labeled specimens in the National Museum bears 

 a slip in M. Ragonot's writing: "Does not appear to differ from European 

 type." 



This is obviously a European importation and from the fact that we 

 have never heard of its injuries until the present time, it would seem 

 likely that it is a comparatively recent introduction. Its occurrence in 

 two States, Georgia and California, may be due to separate introduction. 

 Its known range includes southern Europe and Asia. 



This moth is a member of the pyralid family, Pyraustidre, and the 

 only American representative of its genus. It is, however, somewhat 

 nearly related to the common garden webworm, Loxostege similalis Gn., 



