>48 Transactions of the 



!V 



THE CUT-WORM. 



BY I. N. HOAG. 



This is the American name of one of the most destructive insects in 

 the country. It is sometimes called the com grub, from the fact that it 

 is so destructive to young corn. In English agricultural works these 

 ■worms are called surface grubs or caterpillers, from the fact that they 

 are always found near the surface of the ground. 



The American name seems very appropriate from their habit of cut- 

 ting off young and tender plants, upon which they feed, as smoothly as 

 if done with a keen edged knife. There are many varieties of this worm, 

 each varying slightly from the other in appearance, and each differing a 

 little from the other in its habits and modes of depredation on growing 

 vegetables. The most common and the most destructive variety is 



called the 



STRIPED CUT-WORM. 



It is particularly described by Doctor Asa Fitch, Entomologist, to the 

 New York State Agricultural Society, as a cylindrical worm, usually 

 about an inch in length when disinterred beside the several plants in 

 our gardens and corn holds, and upwards of an inch and a quarter when 

 it is fully grown. Its ground color is dirty white or ash gray, occa- 

 sionally slightly tinged with yellowish; the top of its neck shining 

 black, with three white or pale longitudinal stripes, a whitish line along 

 the middle of its hack between two dark ones. On each side three dark 

 stripes separated by two pale ones, whereof the lower one is broader, 

 often a somewhat glucous white stripe below the lower dark one, and 

 all the underside below this dull white. 



TUEIR IIABIT OF CUTTING YOUNG PLANTS. 



Some of this family of worms cut the young corn or other plants, such 

 as tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, wheat, barley, and oats, just below, and 

 some just above the surface. But all alike lay covered in the earth 

 during the daytime, and only come forth to seek their food and do 

 damage in the night. Owing to this habit they are comparatively safe 

 from being devoured by fowls and birds; as also from being caught and 

 destroyed by man. In seasons when these worms are plenty they do 

 great damage, often destroying the crops of the garden, and corn in the 

 fields, so that it becomes necessary to replant several times before a good 

 start for a crop can be made. Sometimes their depredations are so 

 extensive and persistent as to render it necessary to abandon one kind of 

 crop, and plow and plant some other kind not so liable to be injured by 

 them. 



