^ 29 



This, it strikes us, is a very unsatisfactory- way of dismissiug the rem- 

 edy question and we feel assured that a thorough treatment with the 

 kerosene emulsion at the time when the young lice are hatching will 

 prevent the spread of the insects and result in the recovery of the trees. 



A NEW ENEMY TO RYE. 



An entirely new and very injurious enemy to the Eye crop made its 

 appearance in 1887 in St. Mary^s County, Md. We have never pub- 

 lished any account of it, awaiting its re-appearance. It has not, how- 

 ever, since been seen, and as the matter is of considerable interest we 

 present this note. The pest was a small, active, rather hairy caterpillar 

 which confined its attacks entirely to the heads of the grain. Mr. G. F. 

 Dyer, of Leonardtown, to whom we were indebted for the specimens, 

 wrote that he had 20 acres of rye from which he expected to harvest 

 from 18 to 20 bushels per acre, but that the crop was entirely destroyed 

 and was not worth harvesting except for the straw. He had about 20 

 acres of wheat in the same field but this crop was not touched. The 

 field in question was not in cultivation last year, but in 1885 was planted 

 with corn and tobacco. The larva is small measuring but a trifle more 

 than a quarter of an inch in length when full grown. It is yellowish in 

 color and is marked with two broad brown bands down the back, and 

 two narrower ones nearer the sides. The back is also furnished with a 

 number of large yellowish warts, six to each joint, from each of which 

 comes a bunch of stiff hairs. 



The work of the larva is ver y thorough. Xearly every grain is bored 

 into by a circular hole through its sheath and the contents eaten out 

 more or less completely. Mr. Dyer counted as many as seven larvae 

 upon a single head and each larva must destroy a number of grains in 

 the course of its growth. Before transforming to pupa the larva spins 

 for itself a moderately strong silken cocoon, covering it with spiny bits 

 of the seed sheaths and attaches it to the head of the grain. It re- 

 mains in the pupa state not more than a week or ten days, when the 

 adult insect, a small white moth slightly marked with slate-color to- 

 wards the tip of the wings, emerges. The adult is a species of the in- 

 teresting genus Xola, and is closely related to JSFola sorghiella Riley, 

 described in the annual report of the Entomologist (Rep. Dept. Agr., 

 1881-'82, pp. 187-189), and which was reared from Sorghum from Ala- 

 bama. 



The habits of this insect, so far as learned, render it easy to subdue, 

 as it spun its cocoons and transformed with considerable regularity just 

 at the time of harvest. We therefore advised Mr. Dyer to thresh his 

 grain immediately after harvest, for if this course were followed the 

 helpless pupcTe attached to the heads would be crushed and the next 

 generation of the insect would be practically " nipped in the bud." 



From the fact that the land was not cultivated the previous season 

 it becomes probable that the normal food of this insect is some unculti- 



