On the 7tli June, after several hours of careful search in cornfields 
near Lexington, McLean county, where I selected by preference the 
least thrifty fields, I found no living larvae, and but a single mass 
of webbed dirt at the base of a stalk precisely similar to those formed 
by the web worm, the hill containing it having been evidently dam¬ 
aged some time before. 
A number of the larvae were brought to the office and placed in 
earth in a breeding cage on the 28th May. On the 14th June 
those in the breeding cage were transferred to fresh corn. 
Many of them were dead, but nine active specimens remained. On 
the 33tli the corn was renewed and another search was made. No 
larvae were found and but two living pupae. A single imperfect moth 
was released from the earth in which it had completed its trans¬ 
formations, but it was not able to expand its wings and could not 
be determined. One of the other pupae was unfortunately crushed 
by accident, and the other was badly infested by mites which clung 
closely to its crust about the head with inserted beaks. These were 
carefully picked away, and this sole remaining pupa was returned 
to thoroughly calcined earth to complete its transformations. On the 
22cl July it emerged as a small gray moth, evidently belonging to 
the family Pyralidae. 
From Prof. C. H. Fernald, to whom I referred the specimen, I 
learned that it was a species of Crambus new to him and probably 
undescribed. On the 3d July Mr. Mills, of Dwight, wrote me that 
the larvne had almost entirely disappeared from the corn fields, and 
that the season had been so favorable to the crop that no percepti¬ 
ble damage had finally resulted, with the exception of the loss of a 
few hills here and there. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Larva. —The presence of this larva in the earth may be suspected 
when an irregular mass of webbed dirt is found among the roots of 
the corn, an inch or less beneath the surface. If this mass be 
picked open, the larvae will usually be found safely ensconced within. 
The individual web worm is characterized by its pale reddish 
brown color, nearly black head, dusky yellow neck or cervical 
shield, and by the extraordinarily large ‘‘piliferous tubercles,” each 
bearing an unusually long black hair. These “tubercles ’ are not 
elevated, but consist of smooth shining areas, of a firmer consis¬ 
tency and a darker tint than the adjacent surface. 
The head is dark chocolate brown, slightly and irregularly rugose, 
and bears scattered long hairs of a yellowish color. Upon the front 
is an S-shaped white mark which does not coincide with the sutures 
of this region, the branches of the S lying some distance outside 
the corresponding sutures, and the common stem being relatively 
short. The cervical shield is yellowish, with a white median line, a 
whitish anterior edge, and an oval black spot on the sides near the 
middle of the lateral margin. Surface with a few scattered long 
dark hairs. Below the lateral edges of the cervical .shield, are two 
large piliferous tubercles with the anterior spiracle situated in an 
emargination at the upper posterior angle. The second and third 
