11 



parasite emerges from the caterpillar and feeding on it externally 

 finishes it off and spins its own delicate white cocoon inside that of its 

 host. The parasite emerges a 

 little later than the moth would 

 have done. 1 



It is also much parasitized by 

 a native ophionid, Limnerium 

 blackburni, common to many 

 of the smaller pyralids, and with 

 very similar habits to the para- 

 site referred to above. 



POD-BORER. 



The tobacco pod-borer ; more 

 f amiliar in some quarters as the 



COtton bollworm and the COrn Fig. 5.— Limnerium blackburni, parasitic on splitworm. 



earworni, is the larva, or cater- ( From swezey.) 



pillar, of the noctuid moth Heliothis obsoleta, a cosmopolitan pest of 

 omnivorous habit, often very destructive to such important field crops 



as cotton, corn, tobacco, toma- 

 toes, etc. (fig. 6). On the to- 

 bacco plant its characteristic 

 injury is the boring and eat- 

 ing of the seed pods, although 

 it also eats the f oliage to some 

 extent . Curiously enough, in 

 Hawaii it is never found on 

 either corn or cotton and is not 

 generally considered a serious 

 pest to tobacco. Its multipli- 

 cation is probably in some way 

 checked or controlled, most 

 likely by natural enemies, 

 although these have never 

 been disclosed. 



Life history. — There are the 

 usual four stages in its de- 

 velopment. 



The egg: The eggs are laid 

 singly, in a considerable num- 

 ber, and are generally well 

 scattered. They are rather large and conspicuous; sometimes they 

 are found near the bud in young plants, most usually however on the 

 flower, the pod, or the subtending bracts, rather loosely attached 



Fig. 6.— Heliothis obsoleta, the tobacco pod-borer, a, Adult 

 moth; 6, dark full-grown larva; c, light colored full- 

 grown larva; d, pupa— natural size. (From Howard.) 



1 Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Sta., Div. Ent. Bui. 5, p. 41 (1907). 



