tHE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 205 



disease spread very rapidly, and was no doubt contagious. I collected 

 some fifty or sixty specimens, all apparently in a healthy condition, for 

 the purpose of rearing them. These were placed in two separate boxes with 

 a liberal supply of food. Within twenty-four hours a large number of 

 them died, all apparently from this disease ; they were frequently ex- 

 amined, the diseased and dead were separated from the living, but within 

 three days only four remained alive ; of these four only one survived to 

 enter the chrysalis state, and this one did not mature the perfect insect, 

 hence I am indebted to Mr. James Fletcher for the determination of the 

 insect, who, being on the spot, succeeded in rearing several specimens of 

 the moth. 



A few days later complaints were made to mc of the depredations of 

 the caterpillar of another of our cut-worms, a species usually very com- 

 mon, the larva of a moth known to entomologists as Hade7ia arctica, which 

 was very destructive to corn and other crops. A few days sufficed to ma- 

 ture the swarms of both these devastating armies, when those caterpillars 

 which had escaped both disease and enemies buried themselves in the 

 ground and changed' to chrysalids, which subsequently produced the 

 winged moth. 



Every season these cut-worms are a source of great annoyance to 

 gardeners and farmers, who find their young corn, cabbages, tomatoes, 

 melons and other plants of succulent growth suddenly cut down by an 

 unseen enemy and withered. Stalks of wheat and other grain are often cut 

 in a similar manner by the same enemies, and they being universally dis- 

 tributed and extremely voracious, inflict enormous losses every year. 

 They have received the name of cut-worms from their habit of cutting off 

 near the base tender and succulent plants, and under this common desig- 

 nation there are included a number of species having similar habits, be- 

 longing chiefly to the genera Agrotis, Hadena and Ma?nestra, some of 

 which possess striking points of difference in the moth state, although 

 they much resemble each other while in the caterpillar condition. The 

 general history of these cut-worms can be given in a few words. The 

 eggs are laid by the parent moths during the latter part of the summer, 

 sometimes on the ground about the roots of grass and other plants, and 

 sometimes on the leaves near the ground. Within two or three weeks 

 young larvae hatch from these eggs, and by the time autumn sets in the 

 caterpillars have attained the length of half an inch or more, when they 

 burrow into the ground deep enough to protect them from injury by 



