24 SOME INSECTS INJURIOUS TO TRUCK CROPS. 
mopolis, Ala. ; Lake Bearsford, Florida ; Bastrop County and else- 
where in Texas. 
The above localities indicate a distribution ranging from the 
transition life zone through the upper to the lower austral. The 
occurrence of the species in Florida, Alabama, and Texas would 
indicate that it is to be found throughout the Gulf region. The 
insects observed by Glover were stated to appear in the Carolinas. 
Georgia, and Florida in early October. 
BIOLOGIC LITERATURE. 
The spanworm under consideration was described under the name 
of Boarmia pampinaria by Guenee in 185T. 2 In 1876 Dr. A. S. 
Packard gave a detailed description of the moth, with a consideration 
of its distribution and remarks on the larva and pupa, the former 
being stated to feed on pear. 10 In 1881 Dr. G. H. French 6 had a 
note on the larva observed feeding on willow and geranium; larva? 
transformed to pupa? September 16 and October 2, and the imagoes 
issued April IT of the following year. During the year 1883 this 
sjDecies was observed by Dr. J. B. Smith, 7 then a temporary agent 
of this office, doing injury at Cotuit, Mass. During that year the 
spanworms were so abundant in the cranberry bogs in that vicinity 
that their numbers could be compared only to the army worm 
(Heliophila unipuncta Haw.). In the case in question they began in 
a space about a rod square, devoured that, and spread in a direct 
line across the bog. The number of moths that would have been 
produced from these insects should they have been permitted to 
transform was described as being " frightful/' A rather full account 
by Dr. S. A. Forbes followed in 1884, 8 in which the statement was 
made that the larva was found in midsummer feeding on leaves of 
strawberry in southern Illinois. Larva? obtained August 1 pupated 
on the 11th, and the moths emerged on the 22d, giving eleven days as 
the pupal stage at that season. Larva? collected September 6, about 
half grown, were believed to represent a second generation. The 
]arva of this species came under the observation of the writer on 
asparagus first in 1897. 11 In 1890 Doctor Lugger 12 stated that the 
caterpillars were found on apple and blackberr} 7 , and that there were 
at least two generations annually. 
As this is one of the commonest species of its genus, of wide dis- 
tribution, and authentically determined as living on cotton, there 
seems little doubt that it was the type of Glover's account of " the 
larger spanworm," figured and described in his accounts of insects 
frequenting the cotton plant, published in 1856 x and again in 1878. 5 
A curious blunder Avas made by M. D. Landon, who figured this 
species as the "cotton caterpillar (Noctua xyli?ia)" in 1865, 3 this 
illustration being a crude copy taken from Glover's first or 1850 
account of this spanworm. 
