64 
ECONOMIC STATUS. 
It is nearly as difficult to define the exact status of an insect as regards 
destructiveness as it is to obtain reliable estimates of its injuries. What 
is true of one is about equally true of the other. We can obtain 
reliable information as to the relative injuriousness of an insect com- 
pared to others which affect a given crop in a given season over a 
small area, and we sometimes receive valuable estimates of injuries 
that have been inflicted over such small areas, but it is only with 
slight hesitation that the writer places the cabbage looper among the 
first three cabbage pests of this country, considering what has been 
written in regard to it. In view of its much wider distribution, its 
manner of attacking cabbage, and its destructive appearance so much 
earlier in the season, there can be no doubt that the imported cabbage 
worm (Pieris rapse) is our worst enemy to cruciferous crops; and next 
in order comes the harlequin cabbage bug (Murgantia histrionica), 
after which comes the cabbage looper as the third in rank. 
Writing of this insect in 1870, Riley stated that, next after the 
cabbage worm mentioned, this was the most common insect which 
attacked cabbage in Missouri — a remarkable fact, considering that the 
species had not hitherto been described (2d Mo. Rept.,*p. 110). The 
same author, writing again in 1883 (Rept. Commr. Agrie. for 1883, p. 
119), said that the larva of this species was the most destructive enemy 
to cabbage and other cruciferous plants known to the Southern gar- 
dener, and shared that distinction with the imported cabbage butter- 
fly as far north as Illinois and New Jersey. Since the time of the 
publication of that statement, however, the harlequin cabbage bug has 
become much more widely distributed and injurious, and has alone 
destroyed many fields of cabbage, as the writer can testify from per- 
sonal observation. a 
As previously intimated, owing to the fact that the cabbage looper 
comes late in the season, its injuries are not so noticeable, as ordina- 
rily it confines itself to the outer leaves of cabbage. It has a much 
wider range of natural food plants than the other two species men- 
tioned, and there is no doubt that some injuries done by it are attrib- 
uted to the common cabbage worm, as the latter is better known. 
Professor Sanderson has recorded an instance of unusual abundance 
in Maryland during 1898 (Practical Farmer, December 31, 1898). He 
states that most of the large cabbage growers of Maryland had lost 
between 75 and 90 per cent of their crops, and rarely could first-class 
heads be found in a kitchen garden. When from twenty-five to forty 
loopers were greedily devouring a single plant, as he frequently found 
a At the present writing, however, this species is held in check in many localities 
in its northern range by weather that has been inimical to its multiplication, and it 
may be a matter of some years before it regains the lost footing. 
