42 



SOME MICHIGAN NOTES RECORDED. 



By Tyler Townsend. 



The few notes here incorporated are selected and rewritten from an 

 account of injurious insect appearances in the vicinity of Coustantiue, 

 St. Joseph County, Mich., prepared by the writer three years ago (1886), 

 and which it is not now thought advisable to publish in its original 

 condition. The majority is omitted, only a few points being brought out 

 which are considered of sufficient interest to be worthy of record. 



Passing the Hymenoptera with the remark that the Raspberry Saw- 

 fly (Selandria rubi) did some yearly injury from 1881 to 1886, we find 

 in the Lepidoptera a number of species to be noticed. Of the two Cab- 

 bage Butterflies (Pieris oleracea and rapce), it is worthy of note that the 

 native species was (up to 1886) usually the more abundant, both species, 

 however, being quite injurious every year. Scudder records P. rapce as 

 reaching this part of Michigan in 1877, on the authority of A. J. Cook 

 and E. W. Allis. Thus for ten years at least the native butterfly has 

 held its own against the foreign one, as it seems to have done for a 

 shorter period of time in Colorado (see Insect Life, I, p. 382). 



The, Peach- tree and Currant Borers {JEgeria exitiosa and tipidiformis) 

 are prominent, the first, aided perhaps by the hard winters, having ex- 

 terminated the peach crop in this neighborhood. For several years up 

 to 1881 a fine crop of this fruit was realized, and that year there was a 

 splendid yield. In 1882 the yield was very small, many trees having 

 died. Since then the trees were especially infested with this borer, 

 which had previously been gaining steadily in its injuries for several 

 years, and many trees had died every year, while none yielded fruit, 

 until in 1886, in this immediate vicinity at least, hardly a live peach 

 tree was to be found. 



The Orange-striped Oak- worm (Anisota senatoria) was very abundant 

 from 1879 as far back as 1874, stripping red oaks especially of their 

 foliage to an alarming extent. It gradually became less injurious each 

 year until it almost disappeared. With the exception of a few iso- 

 lated larvae seen in 1836 and some a year or two before, there had been 

 none noticed for several years back. Accounts this year (1889) indi- 

 cate that it has again made its appearance. 



The Boll Worm {Heliothis armigera) came under notice only once dur- 

 ing a period of twelve years. This was in 1881, when the worms were 

 frequently met with in ears of green corn. The Army Worm (Leucania 

 unipuncta) also appeared here in 1881, being in good force and entirely 

 destroying mauy fields of grain, especially oats. 



In 1886 the moths of a species of Agrotis (probably subgothico) were 

 found in great numbers about houses, being especially numerous and 



