Perhaps the most marked insect outbreak of the year has been the appearance of Eurycreon ran-talis over a large area in the five States of Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Arkansas, and also in the Indian Territory. It has attracted a great deal of attention, and the damage done has been very great. The principal crop to suffer was corn, and a replanting was necessitated in many instances. The general corn crop for the year, as statistics show, has been larger than ever before, the acreage having been widely extended; but the yield per acre in the States named was reduced, owing, largely, to the operations of this insect.

Eurycreon rantalis is quite a wide-spread species, occurring all over the United States. It has been captured in South America, and the original description of the species was from a specimen from Montevideo. It is also a very variable species, and has been variously described under the names of crinisalis by Walker,* of communis by Grote.+ and of occidentalis by Packard. ++ It is referred to the genus Nymphula by Guennee, and Scopula by Walker, but properly belongs to Lederer's more restricted genus Eurycreon.

Plate VI, Fig. 3.

The moth (Plate VI, Fig. 3) has an average expanse of 18mm. The general color is either orange or reddish yellow inclining to buff, or more commonly a lighter or darker shade of gray, having, in certain lights, either a copperish or greenish reflection very similar to that on the well-known cotton worm moth (Aletia xylina). The characteristic markings, as shown in the figure, are the darker reniform and orbicular spots with a paler shade between them; two irregular transverse pale lines, generally relieved by darker shade, most intense posteriorly on the anterior line and basally or interiorly on the posterior line. The terminal space may be either paler or darker than the ground color. The markings are very variable, however, dark specimens (rantalis) having them all well defined, paler specimens (communis) less so, while in others (crinisalis [crinitalis, Led.]) the anterior line and inner portion of posterior line may be lacking. Dasconalis, Walker, is probably but a dark specimen and should be added to the synonymy.

* List of Lep. Ins in Brit. Mus.. part xviii, Pyralides, p. 798 (1859). + "Canadian Entomologist," vol. viii, p. 99, May, 1876. J Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist., 1873, p. 261.

The larva, which seems to have been unknown prior to 1873, when we made manuscript notes and descriptions of it, is also somewhat variable in color, being either pale or dark yellow or even greenish-yellow. It is marked with rather distinct jet-black piliferous spots, as illustrated in the figure. In the better marked specimens there is a quite distinct pale double line along the middle of the back and a single one at the lower side. The piliferous spots are also more or less distinctly relieved by a pale border.

The pupa (PL VI, Fig. 3 d) is of the normal brown color and characterized by the tip of the body having two prominences, each furnished with three stout short spines.

Former Injuries

This species has not before been prominently treated of as a wide-spread injurious insect, though it has done a certain amount of damage in times past. In 1873, we observed it feeding in great numbers for miles along the Neosho Valley, in southeastern Kansas, skeletonizing the leaves of Helianthus, Ambrosia, Amaranthus, beets, potatoes, and other garden plants.

In June and July, 1880, it again appeared in injurious numbers in parts of Kansas, and Prof. F. H. Snow wrote a short account of it for the issue of the Lawrence (Kansas) Daily Journal, of July 28th, 1880 (reprinted in "Psyche," III, p. 127), in which he gave a short description of the larva, and stated that it fed on sweet potato, alfalfa, beets, peas, Pig-weed (Amarantus), and Purslane (Portulaca).

After its occurrence in 1880, Prof. E.A.Popenoe, of the Kansas State University, published an article in the Second Quarterly Report for 1880 of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, which gives the best published account of the insect up to that time, and in which the larva, pupa, and imago are described with sufficient care to obviate further detailed description here. The cremastral characters of the pupa (Pl. VI, Fig. 3,,e) which we have indicated, are characteristic, and any fuller description of the larva should be comparative, and especially with other allied larvae like that of Botys marculenta, G. and R., which very closely resembles it.

June 27th, 1881, we received two larvae of ran-talis from Mr. W. C. Lang, of Maiden, Mo., with the statement that the species did great damage to cotton, and the same month it was received from Lamar, Mo., as damaging corn and garden crops.

One of our correspondents, Mr. W. G. Robinson, of Rosston, Cook County, Texas, more observant than others, has noticed the same worm for the last ten years in his county, where he states that it appears yearly to a limited extent, feeding principally on the "Kerless" weed (Amarantus), but that 1885 was the first season in which he had known it to do any damage to the cotton crop.

Localities Of Damage In 1885

The first report of damage done by this insect the present year was received June 22d, from J. M. Altoffen, of Independence, Montgomery county, Kansas, and from that time until late in July we were in constant receipt of letters concerning it. Specimens were received from the following localities : Texas : Cook, Erath, Denton and Hopkins Counties; Arkansas: Crawford County; Missouri : Jasper and Vernon Counties; Indian Territory : Colbert and Econtuchka, Seminole Nation, and Vinita, Cherokee Nation; Nebraska: Lancaster County; Kansas: Cowley, Montgomery, Coffey, Labette, Cherokee, Crawford, and Neosho Counties. Prof. F. H. Snow, in the report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture for the month ending June 30th, 1885, states that no less than thirty-five counties reported more or less damage from this insect. Those reporting the heaviest damage were all situated in the southeastern quarter of the State, and were, excluding the seven already mentioned, Allen, Bourbon, Chautauqua, Elk, Greenwood, Harper, Harvey, McPherson, Reno, Sedgwick, Sumner, Wilson and Woodson, thirteen in all.

The remaining fifteen, which reported slight damage, were Anderson, Barber, Butler, Chase, Ellis, Finney, Ford, Lyon, Marion, Pawnee, Pratt, Rice, Saline, Stafford and Wyandotte.