2 



From Dr. Liutner, State Entomologist of New York, I learned 

 that this malady had appeared in that State, information to 

 the same effect coming also from Mr. GofP, of the New York 

 Agricultural Experiment Station. In a subsequent letter, the lat- 

 ter gentleman contributed the interesting information that Prof. 

 ^Arthur, the botanist of the station, had experimented with refer- 

 ence to the contagious character of the disease by feeding por- 

 tions of the bodies of larvae recently dead to still living and 

 healthy worms, the effect being the speedy sickness and death of 

 those thus treated. From William Saunders, Esq., of Ontario, 

 Canada, I learned October 5, 1885, that there seemed to be no 

 traces of the disease among the cabbage worms of his vicinity. 

 Prof. Snow, of Topeka, Kansas, likewise informed me in 1886 

 that it certainly had not appeared in his vicinity; but in August, 

 1886, I received from correspondents in Kansas, specimens appar- 

 ently suffering from a mild form of this affection. Mr. E. W. 

 Doran^ of Loudon, Tennessee, Assistant Entomologist to the 

 Board of Agriculture of that State, reported to me both in 1885 

 and in 1886 that he was unable to detect any evidence of its 

 occurrence there. 



In the southern part of the State the solitary caterpillak 

 iCaUinwrplia Jecontei) has lately become excessively numerous: 

 and because of the early period of its activity has been found 

 capable of great injury to raspberry plants. The caterpillars 

 climb the stems, gnaw the swelling buds, and eat the young 

 leaves as fast as they put forth . Spraying with arsenic has proved 

 ineffective, because the rapidly unfolding leaves afford an abun- 

 dance of fresh food soon after the application of the poison. 

 Hand picking has given the only satisfactory protection. 



In the course of a series of experiments performed upon the 

 CODLING MOTH {Ccirpocapsa pomonell(i), this species has received 

 fit our hands extraordinary attention in all its relations. An elab- 

 orate account of our observations respecting its life history and 

 its susceptibility to remedial measures is given in another article; 

 and I add here only facts showing the abundance of the species 

 during the two successive years. Of nearly 10,000 apples exam- 

 ined from trees used as checks upon our experiments in 1885, and 

 which, consequently, had not been treated with any insecti- 

 cide, fifty-nine per cent, had been infested by the codling moth — 

 a proi)ortion doubtless unusually great, and due in part to the 

 extraordinary scarcity of apples following a year of great abun- 

 dance. In 188(>, on the other hand, when the apple crop .was an 

 abundant one, following the scanty crop of the year before, a sim- 

 ilar examination of 5,000 apples showed that only thirty-nine per 

 tent, were infested. 



That dread enemy of the cereal crops, the notorious kiMy worm 

 ( Hcliophila imipinicfa), occurred in injurious numbers in 1885 

 throughout Southern Illinois, from Bond and Wabash counties tO' 



