FOXES OX TIIE INSECTS OF MISSOURI FOR 1893. 



By Mary E. Mcrtfeldt, Temporary Field Agent. 



LETTER OF SUBMITTAL. 



KiRKWOOD, Mo.. November 22, 1893. 



Sir: I inlose herewith my accourtf of the more conspicuous of the injurious ii 

 observed in Missouri during the past season. As in previous years, my grateful 

 acknowledgments are due to you for many determinations. 

 Very respectfully, 



Mary E. Murtfeldt. 

 Dr. C. V. Eiley, 



JJ. S. Entomologist. 



Among the entomological developments of the earlier part of the cur- 

 rent year may be noted the appearance of the army worm [Leucania 

 unipuneto), in snch numbers as to justify its appellatiou, in hay and 

 grain fields contiguous to streams and lowlands, where it caused con- 

 siderable loss. It also occurred in large numbers together with other 

 cut-worms in vegetable gardens as well as on the lawns and meadows 

 of St. Louis County, and was frequently brought or sent to me as a dep- 

 redator upon vegetables. So far as it came under my personal obser- 

 vation, however, when found in gardens, it was merely feeding upon 

 the grasses that had come up among the other plants. The moths 

 were unusually abundant during September. 



During the latter part of the season there was an unusual outbreak 

 of our indigenous locusts (grasshoppers). The meadows, gardens, 

 berry beds, nurseries, and young orchards were seriously ravaged by 

 these pests. The species most abundant were Schistooerca avnericana, 

 (Edipoda sulphured, G8. xanthoptera. Melanoplus bivittatus, and the omni- 

 present M. frmur-rubrum. In some of the nurseries and newlj 

 orchards of St. Louis County not a leaf was left entire on apple, pear, 

 and plum trees, and the tender twigs were also in many instances com- 

 pletely barked, thus destroying the season's growth. Spraying with 

 Paris green was resorted to by numbers of nurserymen, and. in a D 

 ure, protected the stock from premature defoliation. So far as I can 

 learn the hopper-dozer is not extensively, if at all. used in Missouri, and, 

 indeed, on the hilly and uneven surface of the greater part of the State 

 it could not be employed to much advantage. 



