646 Agricultural Experiment ^Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



worms destroyed nearly every green shoot of clover (second crop) 

 that appeared over an area of about eight acres here on the Uni- 

 versity farm. During the past five years, hundreds of young peach 

 trees have been killed by cutworms in tbe counties of Wayne and 

 Monroe, J^. Y. Many other equally as striking instances might be 

 given of the destructiveness of these pests. 



As is the case with other insects, cutworms have their years of 

 unusual abundance. In several instances species, that have never 

 before been known as injurious, have appeared in phenomenal 

 numbers in certain parts of the country. 



During the attack upon onions in Orange county, mentioned 

 above, it was '' common for a family to pick 10 or 12 quarts by day 

 and the same number at night by the light of lamps." Sixty cut- 

 worms have been taken from a single hill of corn ; and from fifty 

 to a hundi'ed are frequently found the same day on or around a 

 single two or three-year old peach tree in western New York. 



Their Life, History. 



As our knowledge of cutworms increases, the more difficult it is 

 to record their life history in a general statement. There is found 

 to be a great diversity in the life periods of the different stages, in 

 the method of wintei'ing, and in egg-laying habits, so that each 

 species should be discussed separately. 



The parent moths of many of the species appear during June, 

 July and August. 



But little is definitely known of the egg-laying habits of the 

 moths. The eggs of some species have been found on the leaves 

 of fruit and forest trees ; one species has been reared on currant 

 from eggs found on one of the leaves, while one common species 

 lays its eggs on the trunk or twigs of fruit trees. Professor J. B. 

 Smith says that they are also " laid on grasses, thrust close to the 

 stalk under one of the sheath-leaves, and occasionally on stones. 

 A single moth will usually lay from two hundred to five hundred 

 eggs." * It is supposed that the young cutworms which hatch 

 from eggs laid on the leaves or bark of trees feed on the leaves of 

 the tree for only a short time, if at all, and soon drop or crawl to 

 the grasses or other low vegetation below. 



*A female of Bliynchagrotis crenulata laid 1,027 eggs, as recorded in Bull. 22^ 

 U. S. Div. of Eut., p. 89. 



