ato. It occurs also in
the stalks of the tomato, in those of the dahlia and aster, and other
garden flowers. It is sometimes found boring through the cob of growing
Indian corn. It is particularly partial to the stem of the common
cocklebur, (_Zanthium sirumarium_;) and if it would only confine itself
to such noxious weeds, it might be considered more of a friend than an
enemy. It is yearly becoming more numerous and more destructive. It is
found over a great extent of country; and is particularly numerous in
the valley of the Mississippi north of the Ohio River. The larva of the
stalk-borer moth leaves the stalk in which it burrowed about the latter
part of July, and descends a little below the surface of the earth,
where in about three days it changes into the pupa, or chrysalis state.

[Footnote A: Where no hair-lines are given, the insects are represented
life-size.]

The winged insect (Fig. 1,) which belongs to the same extensive group of
moths (_Noctua_ family, or owlet moths) to which all the cut-worm moths
appertain, emerges from under ground from the end of August to the
middle of September. Hence it is evident that some few, at all events,
of the female moths must live through the winter, in obscure places, to
lay eggs upon the plants they infest the following spring; for
otherwise, as there is no young potato, or other plants, for them to lay
eggs upon in the autumn, the whole breed would die out in a single year.
This insect, in sections where it is numerous, does more injury to the
potato crop than is generally supposed.

~The Potato-Stalk Weevil,~ (_Baridius trinotatus_, Say.)--This insect is
more particularly a southern species, occurring abundantly in the Middle
States, and in the southern parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana.
It appears to be totally unknown in New-England.

The female of this beetle deposits a single egg in an oblong slit, about
one eighth of an inch long, which it has previously formed with its beak
in the stalk of the potato. The larva subsequently hatches out, and
bores into the heart of the stalk, always proceeding downward toward the
root. When full grown, it is a little more than one fourth of an inch in
length, and is a soft, whitish, legless grub, with a scaly head. Hence
it can always be readily distinguished from the larva of the
stalk-borer, which has invariably sixteen legs, no matter how small it
may be. Unlike this last insect, it becomes a pupa in the interior o