The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1875-08-06

uTeS as 10 lne GTOnaDit damage IL MAY
DO the Crops In Hancock County.
Our attention was first called to this
worm in the early part of last week, and
we have not yet had time to ascertain
whether it has made its appearance in
every part of our county. We hear,
however, of its ravages from all points of
the compass, and therefore judge that
every township in the county has re-
ceived call from this voracious insect.
While this insect has been long known
and dreaded by the planters and farm
ers of the South and West, little was
known of it in this State until about the
year 1855, and as far as we have been
able to learn, this is the first visit it has
paid to Hancock county.
While its depredations have, and may,
prove still more serious, we may congrat-
ulate ourselves that they have made
their appearance as late in the season
as they have done. Had they appeared
as early. as they did in Shelby county, in
1860, viz. June 10th, they might have
done much more damage.
When in moderate numbers, they are
very choice in their selection of food,
eating only the tenderest leaves of the
grain; but as they increase in numbers
they become less dainty, aid in the strug-
gle for life they sweep everything green
before them, leaving nothing but DESC
lation where, the day before, were smil-
ing harvests. In the oat fields all the
blades are eaten, as the insect ascends
the stalk, and the grains are cut of, one
by one, and fall to the ground. Nor do
their ravages cease with this grain when
if is cut; they shelter themselves during
the heat of the day by the thousands
under the swaths, and continue their
ravages until the grain is removed from
the field. This is mere wanton destrue-
ton, as they do not eat the grain, but
appear to devour the finer parts of the
stalk
The parent of the army worm is a spe-
cies of night-fying moth, OF, as the Ger
mans call them, owl-moths. Harris, in
his work, 'Insects Injurious to Vegeta-
tion, says it is ''an ordinary looking
moth, of a tarnished yellowish drab col
or, inclining to russet, with a small,
white dot near the centre of its fore
wings, and a dusky, oblique stripe at their
tips. We find it to be rather less
than an inch long, to the end of its closed
wings, or if these are extended, it is about
an inch and three-quarters in width,
different specimens varying in size."
This insect deposits her eggs to the
number of several hundred, among fresh
heritage, on the under side of green
leaves, in the shade. Here they hatch
out, and as they are SO very small at first,
their depredations are almost unob-
served. Increasing in size with age, they
become very voracious, the herbage
where they were Matched becomes ex-
hausted, and they commence their de-
vastating march for ''fresh fields and
pastures green" They rest during the
midday, and feed at morning, evening
and night. While resting they lie coiled
up in a circle in the shade. When full
grown they enter the ground to the depth
of an inch or more, or burrow beneath
an old log or rail, where they form an
oval cell by rolling their bodies around
several times.
While in the caterpillar state they cast
their skins several times, changing their
color from almost black, when young, to
a much lighter color when full-grown.
After from IA to 20 days in the pupa state,
they burst their little ball of clay and
come forth a moth again, and after i'm
pregnation the female selects place in |
the green and tender herbage and de- |
posts her eggs. The worm itself, "when !
fully grown, measures from one and a /
fourth to one and half inches in length |
when well fed, the latter-and is sabout |
as thick as goose quill; color, a lighter |
or darker gray, two lateral stripes, the |
upper with a yellowish central line, the |
lower a reddish one; legs, sixteen; six |
true, or pectoral, eight pro-legs, or alb
dominal, and two anal, at the extremity |
of the body; the head brownish, some
times marbled, and shining; few short |
hairs on the body, and longer struggling |
ones on the head" This description |
may be superfiuous, rs most of our read |
ers will have made the little insects ac-
quaintance before this time.
Now, were this insect to increase un-
the total destruction of all /
vegetation would be the result. But a
kind and beneficent Providence has /
wisely ordered that Insects shall prey
upon each other. Plant-eating insects
are preyed upon by other insects, birds,
reptiles, etc. Many species of birds de-
rive their entire nourishment from in
sects alone, and our farmers, in allowing
them to be killed, commit an almost ir-
retrievable mistake. The crow, black
bird, robin, sparrow, and others, may
be considered as the best friend of the
farmer, and the most strenuous laws
should be enacted and enforced for their
protection.
But there are several parasites that
attach themselves to the army worm and
compass its destruction. If any of our
readers will take the trouble to examine
they win find the remains of many of the
army worms adhering to the stalks of
the oats. A species of the ichneumon
deposits, perhaps, half dozen eggs in
the thoracic segments of the caterpillar,
and these eggs, when Matched out, bur
row within the body of the caterpillar
and devour the fatty substance that sur
round the vital parts, and it shrivels up
and dies. A large fly (tGchinG oicidO
delOsife IFS aO0s In the ear,aa ,uo1nar and