68 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



something about insects, asked me to come down to his alfalfa 

 patch and see what the worms were that were destroying the alfalfa. 

 On the way I noticed considerable numbers of the butterfly Colias 

 ■eurytheme flying about over the alfalfa, and I thought the worms 

 might be the larvae of this species, but an examination of the alfalfa 

 failed to show any of them. However, on arriving at the farm 

 house, I was taken out to a large field where the first crop of alfalfa 

 had been cut and was lying on the ground in piles. The farmer 

 turned over one of these piles, and beneath it were hundreds of 

 half-grown cutworms, smooth, and of a greenish or gray colour, 

 with some dark markings. By carefully looking around, I was 

 able to find some of these scattered about the open field, but most 

 of them were congregated under the piles of hay. The young 

 shoots of the second crop of alfalfa, which begin to grow as soon as 

 the first crop is cut, were being eaten back as fast as they grew, 

 and it was evident that there would be little, if any, second crop. 

 The field looked as dry and barren as a stubble field. Such were 

 conditions in this particular patch. In the next field, which was 

 separated from the first by an irrigating ditch, the second crop 

 was flourishing and the field quite green. I failed to find more 

 than a few cutworms in this field. Apparently but few eggs had 

 been deposited here, and the worms in the adjacent land were 

 unable to cross the ditch. During the same day I saw and heard 

 of several other fields badly ravaged by the cutworm, but, though 

 where present it was very numerous, it was by no means universally 

 distributed through the alfalfa region in the vicinity of Susanville. 

 The worms were without doubt cutworms or army-worms of the 

 family Noctnidce. I brought specimens to Stanford University, 

 but was unable to determine the species. As I remember them, 

 however, they were very similar in appearance to the common 

 army -worm. 



The farmers were at a loss to account for the sudden appear- 

 ance of this pest, as they had not noticed the worms until they 

 were half-grown, and one of them ventured the suggestion that 

 they had come down in the last rain storm. He also suggested that 

 a heavy roller passed over the field would kill many of the worms, 

 and this, combined with a careful use of poisoned baits, would 

 undoubtedly be the most effective means of controlling the pest. 



