Climbing Cutworms. 663 



were found underground as late as July 19tli. Thus, some of the 

 cutworms work during a period of over two months in the spring. 

 This naturally varies the time of pupation and causes the emergence 

 of the moths to take place over quite a long period. When full 

 grown the cutworms bury themselves in the soil from one to two 

 inches, and in a few days change to pupse in earthen cells. The 

 pupse stage seems to last for a longer period than usual among these 

 insects. Cutworms received by Dr. Riley on June 27th changed to 

 pupse by July 7th, but the moths did not emerge until September 

 2d. In Prof. Forbes' experiments many had, doubtless, become 

 pupae by June 1st, and the moths emerged from August 19th to 

 30th. From nearly full-grown cutworms which we put in our cages 

 from April 29th mitil May 15th, no moths were bred until August 

 18th. Thus, at least a month and a half of the summer seems to be 

 passed as a pupa. 



The insect is very abundant here at Ithaca, N. Y., as is shown by 

 the following table (p. 664),. giving the number of specimens caught 

 each night in our trap-lantern experiment during 1889 and 1892; 

 other recorded captures are also included in the table. In 18»9 we 

 kept six lanterns lighted every night from May 1st till October 

 15th ; in 1892 only one lantern was kept lighted for a similar 

 period. 



It will be seen that in 1889 the moth flew from July 12th till 

 September 18th, and in 1892 from June 2l8t till September 30th, 

 and yet there is nothing to indicate more than one brood. They 

 appeared in the greatest numbers in 1889 from August 14th to 

 September 6th, over 97 per cent, of them being taken during these 

 three weeks. In 1892 the period was about the same, but began a 

 little earlier. This agrees very well with the dates given among 

 the other recorded captures. As the tables show, a great majority 

 of the moths captured in the lanterns were males ; this fact is of 

 much practical importance, as will be seen when we come to discuss 

 the trap-lantern method of lighting these insects. 



Doubtless most of the eggs of this species are laid before Septem- 

 ber. Mr, Gillette found that many of the females had their abdo- 

 mens filled with eggs on August 15th. In the latter part of 

 August, 1891, we captured several females at lights and confined 

 them in bottles with clover and plantain leaves. All but one of 

 them died in a few days without laying eggs. By September 3d 



