322 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
The Large Grapevine Caterpillars. 
Whoever works among grapevines, is sure to 
make the acquaintance of various insects. Some 
of these are uescribed upon other pages. Early in 
Fig. 1.—HOG-CATERPILLAR OF THE VINE. 
the season, one will meet with several small cater¬ 
pillars, but in August, and later, he will come across 
creatures so large and so voracious, that he is glad 
that they are so few. The Sphinx family of moths 
are very noticeable in the perfect state ; on account 
•of the large size of some of them, they are often 
mistaken for Humming-birds. So beautiful are 
they in their colors and markings, and so agile are 
they, as they flit among the flowers, that one does 
Fig. 2.— MOTH OF HOG-CATERPILLAR. 
not associate the idea of mischief with these attrac¬ 
tive insects. But those who have studied insects 
even but slighty, must know that however attrac¬ 
tive one may be in its perfect state, there has been 
a time when the same creature was without wings, 
but barely crawled from place to place, and bore a 
form that by common consent, is called a “worm.” 
A number of these large caterpillars feed upon the 
grape in different parts of the country. They are 
most voracious feeders, and their greedy habits 
soon betray them ; they void such quantities of ex¬ 
crement, that their presence is 
readily indicated by their drop¬ 
pings,and, if the vineyard is kept 
free from weeds, as it should 
be, these accumulations of pel¬ 
lets of excrement will lead to 
their detection. These cater¬ 
pillars are so nearly of the same 
color as the foliage or as the 
stem of the vine, that they 
might often escape notice, were 
it not for the tell-tale droppings. 
One who once witnesses the 
rapidity with which they feed, 
will be grateful that they do not 
come in hordes, but are solitary. 
The most frequent of these 
large caterpillars, in western 
vineyards at least, is called by 
the not very elegant name of 
“ The Hog-Caterpillar of the 
Vine.” The young caterpillar is 
pale-green, with a long, straight horn at its tail- 
end. As it increases in size, and undergoes its 
changes of skin, the horn becomes shorter, and 
has a curve, as shown in figure 1, which repre¬ 
sents the full-grown worm. Its name, Hog- 
caterpillar, is due to the fact, that while the first 
and second rings are small and can be drawn in, 
the third and fourth rings are much enlarged, and 
the fore-part of the worm has a resemblance to 
the fat cheeks and shoulders of some of the im¬ 
proved breeds of swine. The general color is pea- 
green when full-grown, and is marked with pale- 
yellow dots. It has an oblique cream-colored band 
along the sides, as shown in the engraving. When 
full-grown, and about to transform, the' color 
changes to pinkish-brown. It descends to the 
ground, and there, under any rubbish it may find, 
forms a cocoon in which it becomes a chrysalis, 
from which, in time, it comes forth as a fleshy-gray 
moth, shaded with olive-green, as in fig. 2. In 
Northern localities, the moth is one-brooded, but 
iu Missouri, and southwards, there are two broods, 
the last appearing in August and September. Like 
other large caterpillars, this is attacked by a para¬ 
site, which deposits its eggs within its body, and 
the larva; hatched from these so far weaken it 
that it cannot make its changes, and produce a per¬ 
fect moth. For this, and all other large caterpil¬ 
lars of the grapevine, hand-picking is a sufficient 
remedy. The entomologists’ name for this insect 
is Chcerocampa pampinatrix. Passing by the Ache- 
mon Sphinx ( Philampelus achemon,) the Abbot 
Sphinx ( Thyreus Abbotii,) the large caterpillars of 
which feed upon the vine in various parts of the 
country, we notice the Satellite Sphinx (Philampelus 
Satellilia,) more generally distributed than any 
other. These grapevine caterpillars, it should be 
stated, are found upon our wild vines, and most of 
them feed upon the Virginia Creeper ( Ampelopsis 
quinquefolia,) a close relative of the grapevine. 
Figure 3 gives this caterpillar of the Satellite Sphinx 
at different ages. When this caterpillar is first 
noticed, it has a rather conspicuous horn, as 
shown at the top of the engraving at c; at 
this time it is green, with a tinge of pink along 
the sides. As the worm grows, its horn be¬ 
comes shorter, and is finally lost entirely. When 
it is full-grown, this caterpillar is nearly four 
inches long, and when moving, appears as at a. 
It is pinkish or flesh-color at first, but ultimately 
becomes a rich, velvety, vinous brown. It has 
a habit when disturbed of flinging its head from 
side to side, in a manner that alarms timid peo¬ 
ple. When at rest, it draws the first two joints 
of the body into the third, which gives it the 
appearance out-lined at 6. When about to transform, 
it goes a short distance into the ground,and becomes 
a chi-ysalis, in which state it remains until the next 
year, when it appears as the beautiful olive-gray 
moth,with dark olive-green markings,shown in fig.4. 
to fail. A kernel of com enveloped in the thinnest- 
covering of gas tar, is as secure against crows, as if it 
were in the crib. A great many intelligent farmers 
have used it, and it secures the safety of the spring¬ 
ing corn from the attacks of birds. The smell is 
offensive to them, and they will not scratch where 
it is. The remedy has been published in our farm. 
spiiinx. 
Larva. 
A Scarecrow tUat never Fails.— Our cor¬ 
respondent “ C,” writes us: “ There has been much 
complaint ou all farms favored with forests, of the 
depredations of crows in the corn field. Much 
Fig. 4.— satellite sphinx ( Philampelus satellilia). 
time has been spent in replanting, and if town 
meeting was called at this time, any amount of 
money would be voted as a bounty on crows. Hig¬ 
gins says he is glad of it, for he has a remedy that 
he lias used for twenty years, and never known it 
Fig. 3.—CATERPILLAR OF 
a, Mature Larva : b, At Rest 
journals, from one end of the land to the other. 
And yet farmers who see crows every day, and suf¬ 
fer more or less every year from their visits to the 
corn fields, use the old scarecrow aud suffer loss. 
Ten cents worth of gas tar would save their crop.’” 
Pine-Tar on Fruit Trees. 
A correspondent at Basking Ridge, N. J., asks if 
it will be safe to apply pine-tar to the lower part of 
the t runks of peach and apple trees, to keep off the 
borer. We should not risk it; stone fruits, espe¬ 
cially, are readily injured and often killed by such 
applications made directly upon the bark. All 
that the tar would accomplish—preventing the 
female moth or beetle (for the peach- borer is 
the young of a moth, and the apple-borer the 
larva of a beetle,) from lay¬ 
ing her eggs. Whatever may 
be expected from the use of 
tar, will result from the ap¬ 
plication of soap, which is per¬ 
fectly safe. The earth should 
be well removed from around 
the base of the tree and the 
trunk, down to the main roots, 
rubbed with new bar-soap, or 
soft-soap may be thinned with 
water and applied with a brush. 
This application must be re¬ 
newed, if it is washed off by 
rains. The base of the tree 
may be surrounded with a piece 
of tarred roofing-paper, its lower 
edge well below the soil, and 
its upper edge six inches or 
more above it. If such paper 
is not at hand, any stiff, coarse 
paper may be used in the same 
manner, and a coating of tar, if desired, applied 
to this. Probably no such applications will be 
so complete as to make it unnecessary to ex¬ 
amine the trees towards autumn for borers 
that may have entered in spite of all preventives. 
