REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I905 



/I 



feed in early spring may be obviated to some extent by delaying 

 the plowing as late as possible, so as to give the caterpillars an 

 opportunity to complete their growth before some other crop 

 appears. Early spring plowing of such fields may only aggravate 

 the injury by retarding the development of the caterpillars, with 

 the result that when corn or some other crop begins to appear it 

 is speedily devoured by hordes of half starved webworms. The 

 destruction of a crop under these conditions may be avoided to 

 some extent by putting in from one half to double the usual amount 

 of seed, thus increasing at the outset the chances of securing a fair 

 stand. 



Nothing can be done to prevent injury by these pests to badly 

 infested grass lands after the characteristic brown patches have 

 begun to appear, because the labor involved would amount to more 

 than the value of the crop to be protected. Ordinarily such an 

 outbreak means simply the loss of a considerable proportion of the 

 grass for that season, as the webworms rarely feed on grass roots 

 to any extent. There is therefore no necessity of plowing such 

 lands unless one be desirous of obtaining a green crop of some 

 kind, and as pointed out above, the sowing should be delayed a 

 little in order to enable the webworms to complete their growth 

 before the new crop begins to develop. 



Literature. Literature relating to these insects is somewhat 

 scarce and consists for the most part of brief records of injury 

 to grass or grain crops. An economic account of these insects 

 is given by the author in bulletin 64 of the Cornell University 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, and Prof. C. H. Fernald has 

 monographed the entire family in the 33d annual report of the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College, 1896, pages 77 to 160, to 

 which the reader is referred for additional information concerning 

 these insects. 



Important species. There are several of these forms which have 

 caused more injury than others and it is of some importance to be 

 able to recognize them, consequently the following brief descriptive 

 accounts have been prepared. 



Vagabond Crambus 



Crambus vulgivagellus Clem. 

 The adult is a very ordinary appearing moth having a wing 

 spread of £4 to \% inches. The general color is a yellowish gray 

 though the forewings are flecked with black and with black dots 



