50 



IKJUEIOUS IKSECTS 



cavity was occupied by one or more worms. Others had 

 penetrated perpendicularly into the melons, frequently 

 beyond sight. None had reached the hollow of the 

 melon, so far as I saw. The worms averaged probably 

 half a dozen to each melon. The melon crops of these 

 three market-gardens were a total loss. Another gardener 

 told me that he had abandoned the culture of melons 

 entirely, because of the ravages of the Melon-worm. 

 Where cultivated in considerable numbers, the August 

 and September crop of melons is very uncertain. The 

 destruction is frequently quite complete, also, in private 

 gardens. 



The Melon-worms are of alight yellowish-green color, 

 nearly translucent, have a few scattered hairs, and, when 

 mature, are about an inch and a quarter in length. 

 They ^^web up" in the leaves of the melon, or of any 

 plant growing near which has flexible leaves, forming a 

 slender brown chrysalis three-quarters of an inch in 

 length. Hundreds of these pupae were found rolled up 

 in the leaves of the tomato and of the sweet-potato. 



" In passing through one of the patches referred to, 

 numbers of small, beautiful moths rose from the grass 

 and weeds. Their wings when extended measured an 

 inch across, and were of an iridescent pearly whiteness, 

 except a narrow black border. Their legs and bodies 

 presented the same glistening whiteness, and the abdo- 

 mens terminated in a curious movable tuft of white 

 appendages like feathers, of a pretty buff color, tipped 

 with white and black. These moths proved to be the 

 mature melon-worms, which had emerged from the 

 chrysalids referred to. 



" The melon- worms, their chrysalids, and moths, were 

 forwarded to Prof. J. H. Comstock, Entomologist of the 

 United States Agricultural Department, for indentifica- 

 tion. He pronounced them to be Phacellura hyalinatalis, 

 another species of the same genus as the Western pickle- 



