STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
781 
tobacco-worm, its habits, the popa. depth op its interment. 
the plants in the greatest numbers. They move about but little during the 
daytime and being of the same green color as the stalks and leaves, they 
arc- difficult to discover. Usually, the presence of one of these worms upon 
our tomatoes is first indicated to us by the large black pellets of excrement 
which it drops, some of which frequently lodge in the forks of the stalks or 
adhere to the glutinous'hairs of the plant. These pellets are of a short 
cylindrical form, and deeply grooved lengthwise; and the worm, as if to 
guard against its presence being betrayed hereby, when it is crawling 
along the stalks, if it chances to come to one of these pellets, it pauses and 
takes it up in its jaws and drops it to the ground. 
When the worm is grown to its full size it leaves the plant on which it 
has hitherto been living, sometimes wandering away to a distance from it., 
and roots down into the ground to the depth of some inches below the 
surface. It here becomes quiescent, and casting off its larva skin it 
appears in its pupa or chrysalis form. By this change it is diminished a 
third in its size and is now oi an oval form, four times as long as thick, 
and covered with a hard crustaceous shell of a glossy bright chestnut color. 
This pupa of the tobacco-worm is particularly curious from having its for¬ 
ward end prolonged on one side into a long slender limb which is bent, 
backwards, reaching to the middle of the body, where its end touches and 
is firmly soldered to the surface, thus forming a kind of loop resembling 
the handle to a pitcher—this being the sheath in which the tongue is 
enclosed, which, in the perfect insect becomes developed to such a remark¬ 
able length. In this state the insect remains through the winter and 
spring. ”lt is currently stated that it lies so deep in the ground as to be 
beyond the reach of the winter’s frost, but this point requires further inves¬ 
tigation, for frequently in harvesting potatoes ttiis chrysalis is disinterred, 
lying only a few inches below the surface. Every laborer who has been 
much employed in digging potatoes, and every boy who lias been assigned 
the task of picking them up, will recollect having noticed it, the curious 
loop'or pitcher-like handle on one side, having particularly drawn his 
attention to it. In the garden, also, whore tomatoes have been grown, I 
have met with it only slightly underground. '1 he subsoil, moreover, 
beneath where it is loosened by the plow, is in most situations so compact 
and hard that it would be a very arduous labor for the worm to penetrate 
downward in it twelve inches or more; and for the moth, alter it comes out 
from the pupa shell, to force itself up such a distance through this compact 
subsoil, would seem to be quite impossible. We know furthermore, that 
the pupce of the other lepidoptara, several of them equalling this in size, 
pass the winter, some in cocoons elevated above the ground, others 
upon the surface, others slightly under the surface, where they one and all 
become congealed by the winter’s cold without impairing their vitality. I 
am therefore led to conclude that the repeated instances in whichl have 
met with this pupa lying but a few inches within the loose surface soil 
were not abnormal, but that this is the depth to which it is commonly 
buried; and that previous accounts, which represent it as lying deep in 
Hie ground, beyond the reach of the frost, are erroneous. When tho 
