IX 



GENEEAL KECOED FOE 1887 AND 1888. 



The most remarkable items of the entomological record for the 

 two years covered by this report are the continuance of the chinch- 

 bug outbreak mentioned in my last report, an enormous eruption 

 of CUTWORMS, — beginning in Southern Illinois in 1887 and rising 

 still higher and extending throughout the State the following year, — . 

 and the scarcity of the Hessian fly after the spring " of 1887, in 

 the region commonly infested by it. 



The most noticeable horticultural insect was a species of yellow 

 Theips ( T. iriiici) excessively abundant in strawberry fields in 

 1887, and charged with doing serious damage there. It was scarcely 

 less numerous in 1888, but the season being more favorable, fewer 

 complaints of injury were heard. 



A still diminishing abundance of the European cabbage worm 

 {Pieris raj)ce) w.as noticeable in both years, due, . doubtless, to 

 causes previously mentioned,— the increasing prevalence of dis- 

 ease and the further development of parasitic enemies. 



Various species shared in the cutworm attack upon both garden 

 and farm vegetation, as has been reported at length on another 

 page, but the most abundant in 1888 was one new to economic 

 entomology, — the clay-backed cutworm, Acjrotis morrisoniana. 



The army worm, was locally reported from a few counties of 

 southern Illinois in spring and early summer, but in terms in- 

 sufficient to distinguish it from cutworms of similar appearance. 

 One of the latter especially, the clay-backed cutworm, was so 

 generally mistaken for the army worm that little reliance can be 

 placed on these statements. 



Another species, new to economic entomology, is a very de- 

 structive PLUM borer sent me from Sangamon county in 1887, 

 larvae of which were bred to the pyralid moth Euzophera 

 yf'mifuneralis. Walk. 



In 1888 lawns and meadows of Central Illinois suffered (especially 

 the former) from unusual numbers of root web worms ^or "grass 

 web worms," as they have been variously called, the most abundant 

 species of the season being Crambus exsiccatiis; C. fuscicostellus 

 was also common, and both were bred from corn. C. zecllus, on 

 S, E.-B 



