THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 117 



POPULAR AND ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY— No. 3. 



CUT-WORMS. 



BY JAMES FLETCHER, OTTAWA. 



Of all the injuries committed year after year upon field and garden 

 crops, none are more annoying than those due to the ravages of the 

 various caterpillars known as Cut-worms. These are the larvae of dull- 

 coloured, active moths, belonging for the most part to the three genera, 

 Ag?-otis, Hadena, and Mamestt-a, and in North America alone constitute 

 an army of no less than 340 different described species, many of 

 which are, at times, very abundant. They may be described, in a 

 general way, as smooth, almost naked, greasy-looking caterpillars, 

 of some dull shade of colour similar to the ground in which they 

 hide during the day. The head is smooth and shining, and sometimes of 

 a different colour from the rest of the body. On the segment next to the 

 head is a smooth plate, known as the thoracic shield, and there are three 

 or four series of bristle-bearing tubercles along the sides. Their habits 

 are nocturnal, that is, they feed at night and lie hid dunng the day-time. 

 The habits of most cut-worms are as follows : — 'The eggs are laid in 

 spring, summer, or autumn, and the insects pass the winter either in the 

 perfect moth state, as a half-grown caterpillar, or as a chrysalis. Those 

 which hibernate as moths, lay eggs in the spring and moths are produced 

 in the autumn. The eggs which are laid in summer and autumn hatch 

 soon after, and the caterpillars either become full fed the same season and 

 pass the winter underground in the chrysalis state, or, after feeding for a 

 short time, become torpid, and so pass the winter beneath stones, heaps 

 of dead vegetation, or in cells beneath the surface of the ground. The 

 injury done by the young caterpillars in the summer and autumn is seldom 

 noticed at those seasons, on account of the abundant vegetation ; but, in 

 the spring, not only are the caterpillars larger and capable of more mischief, 

 but the land is cleared of all vegetation other than the crop which is to be 

 grown. They are then particularly troublesome in gardens, cutting off 

 young cabbages, tomatoes, and other plants as soon as they are pricked 

 out. When full fed, these caterpillars burrow into the ground to a depth 

 of some inches and turn to brown chrysalids inside a smooth cell or a light 



