402 



The Moths and Butterflies 



indefinite wavy lines of black and of lighter brown; in the hinder angle 

 of the hind wings are two incomplete eye-spots bounded in front by a curv- 

 ing velvety black line, and on each fore wing is a single irregular eye-spot 

 near the front margin. 



"Cutworm" is the name applied to the smooth, "greasy," plump cater- 

 pillars of numerous species (representing several genera) of Noctuids. The 

 greasy cutworm, dull blackish brown with pale longitudinal lines attacks 

 all sorts of garden products and other low-growing plants; it is the larva 



FIG. 582. Green-fruit worms, Xylina grotei, at left, and Xylina antennata at right. 

 (Photograph by Slingerland; natural size.) 



of A gratis ypsilon, with brownish-gray fore wings bearing an ypsilon- 

 shaped mark, the hind wings being silky white. The climbing cutworm, 

 Carneades scandens, an active climber and great enemy of nurseries and 

 orchards, is light yellowish gray with a dark line along the back and fainter 

 ones along the sides; the moth has light bluish-gray fore wings with darker 

 markings and pearly-white hind wings. Cutworms mostly hide in cracks 

 or burrow in the ground by day, feeding during the night; they will often 

 cut off young plants just at the ground, or will ascend tall trees and feed 

 on the buds and young leaves. When ready to pupate they burrow into 

 the soil and the moths issue in midsummer. 



The members of the large genus Plusia (PI. VIII, Fig. 7), including some 

 of the commonest Noctuids, are recognizable by a small silvery comma-shaped 

 spot on the disk of each fore wing. Another large genus is that of Cucul- 

 lia, the hooded owlets, in which the thorax bears a prominent tuft of scales 

 and the fore wings are marked with irregular blackish dashes. The 



