300 



THE STUDY OF INSECTS. 



Fig. 359. — Acontia 

 catidefacta. 



trate this group. Chamyris cerintha (Cham'y-ris ce-rin'tha) 



(Fig. 358} is white, with the fore wings 

 marked with shades of oHve, brown, and 

 blue. The hind wings have a narrow 

 border of dark scales, within which 

 there may be a cloudy shade as shown 



Fig. 358. — Chamyris ce- \\\ the figure, or this shade may be Avant- 



rintha. -i <■ 1 11 



ing. The larva feeds on the leaves of 

 apple. The second of our illustrations of this group is 

 Acontia candefacta (A-con^ti-a can-de-fac'ta) 

 (Fig. 359). This species is also largely white, 

 with the fore wings marked with shades of 

 olive, brown, and yellow. The amount of 

 yellow varies greatly in different specimens. 

 The larva feeds on the leaves of Ambrosia art eniisice folia. 



The Boll-worm, Heliothis arniigera (He-li-o'this ar-mig'e- 

 ra). — This widely distributed pest is best known in its larval 

 state ; but the larva varies so greatly in color and markings 

 that it is dijfficult to prepare a description by which it can 

 be recognized. The senior author has published colored 

 figures of this insect, including five varieties of the larva, in 

 his Report on Cotton-insects and also in the Report of the 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture for 1879, Plate VIII. The 

 larva when full grown measures about one and one half 

 inches in length. It is often found feeding on the tips of 

 ears of growing corn. It also frequently infests tomatoes, eat- 

 ing both the ripe and the green fruit. Occasionally it is found 

 within the pods of peas and of beans eating the immature 

 seeds. But the most serious of its injuries is to cotton. 

 The larva bores into the pods or bolls of the cotton, destroy- 

 ing them. The injury thus done to the cotton crop is 

 second in importance only to that done by the Cotton-worm, 

 which destroys the foliage of the plant. Much can be done 

 to check the injury of the Boll-worm to cotton by planting 

 rows of corn in the cotton-field, and collecting the larvse of 

 the early broods from the ears of corn, thus reducing the 



