862 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
army worm. supposed to reside in swamps. 
last, year in Maryland, and this year in Illinois, in Pennsylvania, 
in Massachusetts, and the eastern part of Maine. Thus, from 
nearly one extremity of the free States to the other, we know 
this army worm to be everywhere the same insect. 
Such is the substance of what has been actually observed and 
ascertained of this insect. And as it now stands before us, this 
army worm is one of the most remarkable insects known, in this, 
that it makes its appearance suddenly, in countless millions, where 
no worms like it have been seen before; and after eating all the 
grass and grain in its path for a few weeks, it totally disappears, 
no worms of its kind being seen in the same place afterwards. 
Thus it appears to come without any predecessors, or parents, 
and to depart without leaving any descendants. It is thus the 
compeer of that most dreaded of all insects, the migratory locust 
of eastern countries, a swarm of which alights upon a particular 
spot, eats up everything there, and then flies away and is seen no 
more. But the locust has wings ; everybody sees how it is that 
that appears and disappears as it does. But these army worms 
can only walk. They all appear to be infantry, all foot soldiers. 
How can it come to us, therefore, and again vanish, in the way it 
does ? 
This insect, I have no doubt, is a constant resident with us 
here in the Northern States. Its natural abode, its ordinary 
lurking place, I am confident, is in the wild grass of wet spots, 
in swamps, and on the border of marshes, waste places which we 
seldom visit in summer, and when there we notice nothing but 
the swarms of musketos which assail and torment us, forcing us 
to retreat from thence as speedily as possible. Hence it is, I, think, 
that this army worm is never seen and is not known to be in our 
land. And thus I am able to account for the fact that I have 
never met with this insect. There being no marshes of any ex- 
tent in the vicinity where I reside, I do not suppose it exists any¬ 
where about me. 
It probably occurs only in limited patches, in one place and 
another, but will be very numerous in the spots where it exists. 
It must be that our sportsmen, our hunters (as we complaisantly 
term them—“ bird-murderers” they might better be called,) and 
other persons whose pursuits lead them to the swamps and 
marshes, have sometimes noticed spots there where the grass had 
all been consumed by these army worms. 
