Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-08-20
How the Army Worm Moves.

The army worm Low devastating
parts OF Long Is!aui and New Jersey
Is SO called BECAUSE it appears in such
large numbers. aud because, like
others OF Its species. it meyes III col
umns and follows leader. 1t Is
caterpillar, the larya Of a moth, and
noted tor It's voracity, as it well may
be, Slice 1t caa eat, it Is said, more
than double It's own weight in twenty
four hours. Although less gluttonous
as rule, 1t is more destructive than
the locuss, from its greater fecundit,
and wider dlstriDation over the vegeta-
bic werld. 1t feeds on leaves, flowers,
roots, bals, seeds. even the wood OF
plants; Indeed, II Is nearly omnivorous.
The worm IS Inserted to march in regu-
lar and exact order; it lives il society
and moves in procession either in sin
gle Tile or two, three and four abreast,
tue line being so perfect III the columns
that the head OF one ID never beyond the
head OF another N the row. 1t follows
the leader, stopping when the leader
stops, making journeys from plant to
plant, or from tree to tree in quest of
food, and returning to its nest in the
same order. The worms form ranks,
march and halt with the precision OF
soldiers. When several nests are in
the same neigh borhood, the going forth
and coming back of the creeping bat
tallOns at the same hour, commonly
toward nightfalL is very curious and
interesting. Caarpillars include more
than 200 varieties, there being 700 in
New England alone. They all have
thirteen segments; the first consisting
OF Jaw and mouth; the second, third
and fourth of the thorax of the future
insect, and the other segments OF the
abdomen. Theirrapid growth and ex-
traordinary consumption are shown by
the common siik-porm. which, accord
ing to Vincenzo Dand.lo's treatise on
silk, increases during the thirty days
necessary to its fall growth from one
to forty lines in length and from LOO
to about ninety-fse grains in weight.
In that time, therefore, it increases its
weight $500 times and eats 1000
times its weight of food. In the
Northern States there are about 900
kinds of butterflies and moths. AS
each female lays fro IN 200 to 500 eggs,
these species would produce, on an
average, from each single female 30O,-
0OO caterpillars a year. If one-balf
OF these were females, the second gen.
GRAFTON would be $4,000, 900 and the
third $3.50, 100000. With such fer
tility, it is easy to zee that the destruc.
tive power of caterpillars, partic ularly
OF the army worm, must be prodigious.
"THE LORDS DAY"Ac IN MAssA-
CHUsETTs. Supreme Court of
Massachusetts continues to sustain
very strictly the Old law out.lawing all
travel on the Lords Day not for pur-
poses of necessity or charity. Charles
Davis sued the city of Somerville for
damages received on the highway uu-
der these circumstances. He rode with
companion from Boston to Cambridge
on Sunday to attend funeral and re-
tarned through Somerville and
Charlestown to make social call. The
lower court left to the jury the ques.
ton whether he was upon an erranA of
necessity or charity, but the Supreme
Court aus.ain the exceptions taken TO
that course OF procedure, and hold that
the return journey substituted new
and different purpose in the place o.
that which he had In view when no lett
home, and was not justified by any rea
son of necessity or charity within the
meaning Of the Lords Day act" In
another case, just decided, q traveller
on the Lords Day sued the owner OF q
dog which jumped ut his horses head
and frightened him, causing damage.
The Supreme Court sustain the ruling
of the lower court in favor of the
plaintiffs right to recover on this
ground: Though the plaintiff was
illegally travelling on the Lords Day,
his illegal action was not a contributing
cause of his injury so as to defeat his
right to recover.