2 
It seemed at first improbable that theCrambus could be the cause of 
the mischief, as the species of this genus, so far as I was aware, were 
known to feed only on Gramineae and particularly on common grasses. 
Mr. Felt has lately found that some ofthem 7 including this species, will 
feed also on Eumex, though all apparently prefer grasses. On my visit 
last autumn I was better able to examine the nature and extent of the 
injuries caused by the larva and to obtain specimens nearly or quite 
mature. The precise depredators had been readily found by Mr. Briggs 
and the men in his employ at work about the running portion of the 
plants extending along the surface of sand in the stratum of fallen 
leaves which always covers an old cranberry bog, and from which the 
delicate clusters of new rootlets take their rise; square rods of the 
meadow were scorched as by fire, in some places a half acre or more, and 
everywhere, but especially along the borders of the portions of the fields 
attacked, the larvae could be found in filmy silken galleries following 
the prostrate stems or runners, into the surface of which they had 
everywhere eaten their way, destroying the vital part of the plant and 
often, especially next the base of the runners, deeply girdling the stems. 
Besides collecting a number of the largest larvae and taking them 
home to rear, a large sod containing others was transported to Cam- 
bridge and placed in a favorable position for their hibernation. By 
cursory examination from time to time it was proved that the larvae 
formed their coarse cocoons of mingled sand and silk just at the surface 
of the ground late in the autumn (about November), remained in the 
same stage within the cocoons until the latter part of May or early 
June, when they changed to chrysalis, and after about a month reap- 
peared as moths, when their identity with the supposed culprit flying 
at large over the bogs in the first days of July was proved. The cages 
were kept in a cellar until the moths appeared, all of which were males, 
and came out July 6 and 7. 
This would appear to be the normal habit of life of this creature on 
the Plymouth cranberry bogs, and the record of Mr. Felt shows the moths 
flying at Ithaca, N. Y., in July only. But Prof. John B. Smith states 
that he has taken the moths on cranberry bogs in Ocean County, N. J., 
in May, and Mr. Briggs tells me that some vines which were green 
immediately after the spring plowing died before the month of July, 
apparently from the attacks of the same insect, as if caterpillars which 
had passed the winter fed again in the spring before pupation ; so it 
may be that there is some considerable time variation in the maturity 
of the larva. Mr. Felt also states that " in the spring the larvae com- 
plete their growth." 
The damage done at Plymouth was considerable; great patches of 
scorched vines could be seen, sometimes a half acre in extent, in which 
not only the year's crop had failed but the plants were almost entirely 
destroyed; and considerable areas were seen where the damage of pre- 
vious years had compelled replanting. There was this, however, to be 
