648 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



fully grown ; they then leave their dead or dying victim and burrow 

 into the soil, where they transform into the flies. At least 90 per 

 cent, of the cutworms that ravaged the clover-fleld, mentioned 

 above, were killed by one of these tachina-flies. It was diflficult to find 

 a cutworm that did not bear its quota of eggs, in fact, not enough 

 could be found to enable us to breed the moth. Although most of 

 the damage had been done for the season before the worms began 

 to die from the work of the parasites, yet by their final death the 

 next year's crop of cutworms was nearly annihilated over that area. 

 Other similar instances of the efficiency of these tachina-flies in 

 checking these pests have been recorded. 



Cutworms also have several other smaller parasitic foes among 

 the ichneumon-flies. 



Methods of Combating Cutworms. 



In order to include the methods adapted to all conditions the dis- 

 cussion of this topic is deferred until after the following account of 

 some cutworms with climbing habits. 



IJ. CLIMBING CUTWORMS. 



Climbing cutworms are cutworms that, under certain conditions, 

 assume climbing habits which enable them to feed upon the buds 

 and leaves of shrubs, grape-vines, tall flowering-plants, etc. 



Their History. 



The European literature of the past sixty-five years contains 

 several accounts of cutworms climbing grape-vines and doing much 

 damage to the buds and leaves ; a few species are recorded as climb- 

 ing shrubs, but none seem to have been noticed on trees. 



Apparently the earliest reference to climbing cutworms in Amer- 

 ica is found in the Massachusetts Ploughman for June 28, 1851 ; 

 naked caterpillars came out of the ground in the night, and crawling 

 up the the trunks of the fruit-trees, devoured the leaves, and 

 retm'ned to conceal themselves in the ground before morning. In 

 1852, Dr. Harris found the yellow-headed cutworm cutting ofi the 

 tender shoots of roses, currant-bushes and other shrubs, and even 

 young trees. In 1866, Dr. Riley gave a detailed account of the 

 operations of three different species on the buds of fruit-trees, 

 grape-vines, etc., in Illinois. The same year a climbing cutworm 



