FIELD BOOK OF INSECTS. 



pendulum swings Nature is "balanced" but not very 

 steady. This dull-brown moth gets its specific name from 

 the "one point" of white on each front wing. It appears 

 early in the season (June in the North), and yellowish 

 eggs are laid in rows at the bases of grass leaves, each 

 female depositing, all told, about seven hundred. The 

 larvae are nearly, or quite, two inches long when full- 

 grown; they are grayish-black with three longitudinal 

 yellow stripes on the back, the median one being the 

 narrowest, and a wide greenish-yellow stripe on each 

 side. They feed at night, hiding by day at the grass 

 roots, and about mid-summer pupate, without a cocoon, 

 just under the surface of the ground. Adults emerge about 

 two weeks later but their offspring are not usually numerous 

 enough to be very destructive. The next brood of adults 

 either hibernate, or they lay eggs the same season and the 

 larvae hatching from these eggs hibernate. The number of 

 annual generations in the South is sometimes as high as 

 six. Army-worms with white eggs on them should not 

 be killed, as these are the eggs of some parasite, usually 

 of a Tachinid fly. There are numerous other species in 

 the genus, the Wheat-head Army-worm, Leiicania albilinea 

 (Plate LII) being sometimes troublesome to farmers. 



Larvae of this genus, which has also been 

 Papaipema called Hy ^ rcec i a) bore j n the stalks o f 



plants. Papaipema nitela (Plate LII) is the best known, 

 for its larvae are sometimes abundant in garden plants, 

 such as potatoes, tomatoes, and corn, especially if rag- 

 weeds, dock, and other wild plants, the natural food of 

 the species, are allowed to grow near the garden. Eggs 

 are laid in the fall but do not hatch until May. The 

 larvae then start tunnelling and if they confined themselves 

 to one plant, not much injury would be done. However, 

 they frequently leave the first plant and migrate some 

 distance; it is then that our garden plants fall victims. 

 Infested plants wilt above the place where the larva is 

 working, but sometimes the larvae get under the husks of 

 green corn and remain unnoticed until an attempt is 

 made to use the corn. However, see Heliotliis. Pupation 

 takes place in the larva's tunnel; no cocoon is made but, 



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