STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
343 
that it feeds on the leaves only. I have known a grape leaf five 
inches in diameter to be more than half consumed by one of these 
worms in a single night. 
The following brief description and history of this insect will, 
probably, suffice to render it definitely known: 
The worm appears in July, and grows to about three inches in 
length and half an inch in thickness. It has a tesselated or 
checkered appearance, from numerous short, blackish, longitudi¬ 
nal stripes, between the fine wrinkles or transverse strirn of its 
body, its ground color being ash gray, usually tinged with red 
on the under side and legs. It finishes feeding and quits the 
vines the fore part of August, crawling deep into the ground, be¬ 
yond the reach of frost, Dr. Kirtland says; but in repeated in¬ 
stances in which I have bred it, it has merely crawled under dry 
leaves or other rubbish on the surface of the ground, surround¬ 
ing itself slightly, if at all, with a few loose threads of silk, and 
reposing in this situation, in its pupa state, till the following 
May, when it hatches a very thick-bodied humming-bird moth 
measuring about two inches and three-fourths across its extended 
wings ; its color being deep bluish gray, varied with velvety 
black bands, and oblique streaks on the inner part of its wings, 
and particularly distinguished by having the anterior half of its 
hind wings of a bright lemon yellow color. These moths place 
their eggs upon the leaves, from which come another generation 
of the worms. 
The only measure I am able to recommend for destroying this 
and a few other kinds of large worms which occur upon the grape, 
is, to pick off every leaf on which a worm is discovered, and 
crush it beneath the sole of the boot. Fortunately, none of these 
^worms are liable to become multiplied and numerous, nor are 
^hey at all venomous, as is popularly imagined. No special soli¬ 
citude need be excited, therefore, from meeting with one or ano¬ 
ther of them, occasionally among the leaves. 
August 8, 1860. , 
THE WHEAT MIDGE PARASITE. 
Wo take the following from the Canadian Agriculturist, pub¬ 
lished at Toronto, July 16 : 
A correspondent of the London Free Press writes : “ I am re¬ 
joiced that this week I announce the arrival of a deadly enemy 
to the wheat maggot or fly ; in the neighborhood of Sparta, town- 
