May 5,1923 
Striped Sod Webworm 
401 
corn and oat fields in northern Ohio in 1895 by his statement that the 
moths were taken in June following the outbreak, but “in more limited 
numbers'^ than those of C. trisectus, to which the larger part of the 
trouble was undoubtedly due. From Forbes (6, p, 39-42) there are 
numerous reports of crambid injuries, especially to com, but in not a 
single instance does he attribute the damage to this species alone; always 
at least one other species is involved. 
In the writer’s experience larvae have been found in numerous instances 
destroying corn plants, and almost invariably either the crop followed 
sod or the injury was confined to the margin of the field. At Spring 
Hill, Tenn., one larva was found destroying a wheat plant early in 
June. A. F. Satterthwait has on three occasions sent the writer larvae 
found feeding in the bulbs of timothy plants. In some experimental 
plantings of corn on sod land near Chapel Hill, Term., three of these 
larvae were found to every one of Crambus caliginosellusy the only other 
crambid present, and the stand of corn was being very materially injured 
by them. In 1920, near La Fayette, Ind., this species, associated with 
C. trisectusy caused severe injury in several fields of com. 
Although there is no record of a general outbreak of this species, it is 
certain that, with favoring conditions, severe but narrowly local out¬ 
breaks occur more often than is realized. The moths are often suffi¬ 
ciently numerous to show that a large amount of food has been required 
to produce them, and as the larvae seem to be strictly grass feeders 
the species must be placed well toward the head of the list of injurious 
forms. It seems especially subject to parasitism and epidemic diseases, 
and this may explain why it has not increased to such an injurious 
degree as some of the other species. 
SEASONAL HISTORY 
In Tennessee, where collections have been constantly made for the 
last five years, the moths first appear about May 15, the date of their 
appearance being very uniform year after year. By May 20 they are 
abundant and continue so for a month in gradually decreasing numbers. 
During five years’ collecting no moths have been taken between June 
19 and July 3, and only scattering individuals until about July 10, 
when the moths of the second generation appear in greater numbers 
and remain over a longer period than those of the first generation, con¬ 
tinuing fairly abundant until August 15. Then after another interval 
of absence a few appear during the last few days of August and in Sep¬ 
tember, evidently a partial third generation. The latest record for the 
country is of one moth taken at Knoxville, Tenn., October 26, long 
after the others were gone. 
In Florida, the moths of the first generation appear as early as the 
latter half of February, but data are lacking for the rest of the year. 
A fairly complete series of collections made at La Fayette, Ind., shows 
that in that latitude the periods of abundance fall about a month later 
than in Tennessee, the first from June 20 to July 10 and the second 
from August 6 to September 8. Even there the partial third genera¬ 
tion appears, as moths were taken October i and 2 after having been 
absent for nearly a month. The La Fayette records accord closely 
with Forbes’s (d, p. 43) statement for Illinois— 
two well-marked periods of maximum occurrence, one in July and one in August, 
with a comparatively sparse showing toward the middle of July. 
