IX 
GENERAL RECORD FOR 1887 AND 1888. 
The most remarkable items of the entomological record for the 
two years covered by this report are the continuance of the chinch- 
bug outbreak mentioned in my last report, an enormous eruption 
of cutworms, —beginning in Southern Illinois in 1887 and rising 
still higher and extending throughout the State the following year,— 
and the scarcity of the Hessian fly after the spring of 1887, in 
the region commonly infested by it. 
The most noticeable horticultural insect was a species of yellow 
Thrips (T. tritici) excessively abundant in strawberry fields in 
1887, and charged with doing serious damage there. It was scarcely 
less numerous in 1888, but the season being more favorable, fev ei 
complaints of injury were heard. 
A still diminishing abundance of the European cabbage worm 
(Pier is rcipce ) was noticeable in both years, due, doubtless, to 
causes previously mentioned,—the increasing prevalence of dis¬ 
ease and the further development of parasitic enemies. 
Various species shared in the cutworm attack upon both garden 
and farm vegetation, as has been reported at length on another 
page, but the most abundant in 1888 was one new to economic* 
entomology,—the clay-backed cutworm, Ac/rotis morrisonicinci. 
The army worm was locally reported from a few counties of 
southern Illinois in spring and early summer, but in terms in¬ 
sufficient to distinguish it from cutworms of similar appearance. 
One of the latter especially, the clay-backed cutworm, was so 
generally mistaken for the army worm that little reliance can be 
placed on these statements. 
Another species, new to economic entomology, is a very de¬ 
structive plum borer sent me from Sangamon county in 1887, 
larvae of "which were bred to the pyralid moth Euzophevci 
semifuneralis , Walk. 
In 1888 lawns and meadows of Central Illinois suffered (especially 
the former) from unusual numbers of ROOT web WORMS or “grass 
web worms,” as they have been variously called, the most abundant 
species of the season being Crambus exsiccatus; C. f uscicostellus 
was also common, and both were bred from corn. C. zeellus , on 
S, E.—B 
