654 Agricultural, Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



given ; it seems best to also include in tliis discussion a fifth 

 climbing species, which we have investigated as a greenhouse pest. 



1. Thj; White Cutworm. 



Carneades scandens Rilej. 



This species constituted over 90 per cent, of the cutworms that 

 climbed peach trees in western New York in 1893 and 1894; this 

 statement is based on the examination of nearly 700 specimens 

 taken from the trees in Wayne and Monroe counties. 



Its history and distribution. — This cutworm was first described 

 from Illinois in 1866 by Dr. Riley (Prairie Farmer for June 2); 

 three years later he described the adult insect — the moth — as a new 

 species (First Missouri EejDort, p. 78). During these three years 

 the cutworm had done much damage to the buds of fruit trees and 

 grape-vines in Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana and Michigan. 

 It was, apparently, the most numerous of the climbing species in 

 these localities. The insect seems not to have again attracted 

 notice as an injurious species until 1886. Miss Murtfeldt then 

 recognized it as one of the species at work on the buds of shade and 

 frnit trees in Missouri. In 1888 it was abundant, and injurious to 

 apple buds in Canada ; the moth had been known in Canada for 

 several years. In 1894 it w^as identified as one of the cutworms so 

 destructive in Michigan peach orchards. 



The first record we have of the insect in our State is in 1873, 

 when Dr. Lintner collected the moth at Schenectady ; it was taken 

 in Erie county in 1875, and at Fenton, Lewis county, in 1877. 



The species is now known to occur in Colorado and most of the 

 northern States east of the Rocky mountains, and in Canada. It is 

 thus an American insect and has a wide range. It is one of the 

 most common and injurious of the cutworms with climbing habits. 

 Its appearance. — The full-grown cutworm measures about one 

 and three-fourths inches in length ; it is shown about natural size 

 in the frontispiece, and twice natural size at I on plate 1. Its 

 general color is a very light yellowish-gray, with irregular whitish 

 areas on the dorsal, and lateral aspects of the body ; these merge into 

 quite a distinct white stripe just below the spiracles. The head and 

 the homy thoracic and anal shields vary considerably in color in 

 different specimens, but are usually light brown, mottled or dotted 

 with black ; in young caterpillars the head is sometimes almost 



