53 



which the fuscous dots, rings, and crescents are very prominent. I 

 have learned of the presence of the insect in one or two counties 

 besides St. Louis, and have reason to think it quite widely disseminated, 

 although not so destructive to hedges in more sparsely settled Localities 



as it is in the various suburbs of St. Louis. Thorough spraying with 

 any of the arsenites will kill it, but the process needs frequent repeti- 

 tion during the season, and much pains must be taken to wet the inner 

 as well as the outer leaves. 



The principal enemy of this insect, in its own class, is the Spined 

 Soldier-bug (Podisus 8pin08us) } of whose larvae and pupae I found a large 

 number at different times with their beaks inserted in the bodies of 

 the wriggling larvae. A few larvae were also destroyed by the small 

 Ichneumonid, which was kindly determined for me at the Department 

 as Braeonjuglandis Ashm. 



The Blue-grass Worm. 



(Crambus teterrellus Zinck.) 



For two or three years the moths of this species have in this locality 

 outnumbered all the other species of Crambids combined. In the day- 

 time they would flutter up from the grass before us at every step and at 

 night our lighted windows would be covered with them. About the first 

 of August, when these moths were most abundant, I had occasion to dig 

 up a bit of sod from the lawn, and upon examining it closely I found sev- 

 eral galleries of fine white web, with sparse miuglings of castings 

 formed against and between the steins and blades of the grass. In 

 each of these tubes was a minute, dingy white larva, then 4 or 5 mm in 

 length. This piece of sod was carefully planted in a large rearing jar 

 and watered, so that it might continue to grow. A day or two after 

 this a considerable number — eighteen or twenty — of minute, salmon-col- 

 ored eggs were found on a window-sill near a dead specimen of the moth 

 above named. By means of a fine earners hair brush these eggs were 

 transferred to a glass tube containing several blades of grass, and in the 

 course of two or three days about a dozen tiny larvae, of a cream-white 

 color, with brown heads, had hatched. Placing them upon growing 

 grass, they soon began the formation of tubes or galleries similar to those 

 taken out of doors, and as they continued to develop, it was plain that 

 they were identical with the latter. 



During the dry weather of August and September others were found 

 on the lawn, where the grass had withered in small patches, and it was 

 evident that to this species is due to a considerable degree the faded 

 appearance and scanty growth of the blue grass during the latter part 

 of summer. 



The growth of the larva' was very slow and seemingly out of all pro- 

 portion to the amount of web tubing constructed. A single larva, not 

 more than one-third of an inch long, seemed to require tor its domicile 



