♦ 46 



riot be more destructive than others of the group of cut-worms to which 

 they belong. As stated in the beginning, the prevailing system of 

 underdrainage has at present a tendency to emphasize this gregarious 

 habit by restricting the area of wet grounds. 



Whether this will continue to be the case, or whether, after a time, 

 the effect will be to break up the habit of massing into large swarms, 

 and diffuse them into smaller and less destructive colonies, remains yet 

 to be seen. 



The heaviest damage has this season, here in Indiana, fallen upon 

 the rye crop, a state of affairs which has excited much comment among 

 farmers. The reasons for this seemingly general selection of this 

 crop, for depredation by the worms, are (1) on account of its hardy na- 

 ture, rye is often sown on these swampy or mucky lands, as it with- 

 stands the weather there better than any other crop ; and (2) by na- 

 ture it is a rank grower, and, therefore, a field in spring presents to the 

 female moth all the requirements of a suitable locality to place her 

 eggs, viz, where her progeny will have an abundant supply of succu- 

 lent food, in a damp place and shaded from the direct rays of the sun. 

 In all fields of rye examined which have been ravaged by the army- 

 worm, the latter were found to have originated in the fields themselves 

 and had not migrated to them. Cases were not uncommon, however, 

 where the worms originated in grass lands and from thence invaded 

 fields of wheat and oats. 



The prospect of controlling the outbreaks of the army-worm in the 

 future seems encouraging, provided the farmer is perfectly familiar 

 with their habits. Much of the damage done might be prevented if 

 decided measures were taken at the start. The trouble is that too 

 often the farmer wastes the most precious time in waiting to see what 

 the worms are going to do, and by the time he finds out they are beyond 

 control. m 



So far as I have been able to learn, where a neighborhood has turned 

 out en masse, and taken decisive measures to destroy the worms, little 

 injury has been done. These measures have consisted in ditching 

 around the infested area and either flooding the ditch with water, or 

 otherwise destroying what fell into it, and driving stock over the area 

 inclosed by the ditches, whereby vast numbers of worms were crushed. 

 From pupa? obtained in Fulton County the following parasites were 

 reared : Ichneumon brevicinctor Say, Nemorcea leucanice and Dri/meia 

 spl Ophion purgatus Say, also a parasite on Leucania, was this year 

 reared from pupa of Scoliopteryx libatrix. 



THE FALL ARMY-WORM. 



(Laphygma frugiperda Ab. and Sm.) 



In 1885 and again 1889, we found larva? of this species feeding on the 

 tassels and unfolding leaves of young volunteer corn, late in Septem- 

 ber, in the vicinity of La Fayette, Ind. In both cases we reared adult 



