Climbing Cutworms. 669' 



others not until May 24th. The newlj-liatched cutworms are of a 

 dirty yellowish-green color with a black head and very distinct 

 piliferous spots. Their first food consists of the delicate pink egg- 

 shells from which they have just emerged. For a while they live, 

 for the most part, in company on the leaves of the plant bearing the 

 eggs, and they do not hide during the day. In this stage they move 

 about with a looping gait like the well-known measuring-worms.* 

 After the first shedding of their skin, which takes place in about a 

 week, the characteristic markings of the variegated cutworm begin 

 to appear, and they drop from the trees and assume the normal 

 cutworm habits. 



They shed their skins three times more at intervals of three or 

 four days ; each stage has been carefully described by Dr. Lintner 

 (Fifth Report, 202-203). In his experiments, the cutworms were 

 fro 01 23 to 28 days in attaining their full growth ; this agrees very 

 closely with Dr. Riley's observations. The mature cutworm goes 

 into the soil a short distance and there twists about and forms an 

 earthen cell in which it changes to a pupa in two or three days. 

 Dr. Lintner's specimens began changing to pupse June 5th, and 

 Dr. Riley's on June 17th. Moths from the former pupse emerged 

 about June 25th, and from the latter on June 2Sth to July 5th. 

 This, and other records, indicate that the pupa state lasts from 11 

 to 2) days in June. All the breeding experiments (thus far recorded) 

 show that in the spring it requires from 35 to 62 days for the insect 

 to undergo its transformations from the hatching of the egg to the 

 emergence of the moth ; most of the records are about 47 days. 



Prof. Forbes states that the spring brood of cutworms may feed 

 in Illinois " until the first of June, sometimes pupating, however, 

 by the middle of May, and sometimes not entering the earth until 

 the middle of June." The moths began to emerge in his breeding 

 cages June 14th, but they were not abundant abroad until about 



*Dr. Lintner and Dr. Riley differ in their statements regarding the number 

 of pro-legs which these newly-hatched cutworms have. Dr. Eiley said first that 

 (Am. Ent., i, 188) " they have the full complement of 16 legs, but the two hinder- 

 most pair of abdominal pro-legs are much longer than the two foremost pairs ; " 

 on p, 298 of volume iii, he says : " The young worms have the first pair of pro- 

 legs reduced in size." Dr. Lintner definitely states (Fifth Report, 202) that in 

 the first stage " they had but three pairs of pro legs." At the first moult they 

 acquired an additi"nal pair, making four pairs of pi'o-legs ; and after the second 

 moult they had the normal number of five pairs <>f pro-legs. This is an interest- 

 ing point and could be easily settled by referring to authentic specimens. 



