The Army-worm. 243 



and corn of New York farmers also went down the throats of the 

 ravaging armies of the worms in 1896. 



. The Story op an Army-worm's Life. 



Only those who have closely watched the growth and wonderful 

 transformations of an insect can realize how fascinating is such a 

 study of life. It is astonishing how much ignorance there is 

 among the great mass of the people in regard to insects and their 

 life-stories. But few of the hundreds of farmers who suflfered 

 from the ravages of the army- worm last year, had any definite 

 ideas as to where the worms came from or what became of them. 

 Our observations lead us to believe that those who know the 

 most about the habits and lives of their insect pests, are the ones 

 who best succeed in conquering these minute foes. Furthermore 

 it must be more interesting to plan a campaign against an enemy 

 with whose habits one is familiar than to go at it haphazard as 

 many do. The life-history of the army-worm varies somewhat 

 in different latitudes ; the following discussion is applicable, in 

 most cases, only to New York state and similar latitudes. 



The egg stage, or how and where its life begins. — Each army- 

 worm begins life in a minute, round, nearly smooth egg of a 

 distinct, yet very light yellow color,* and measuring from 6 mm. 

 to 7 mm. (about .025 of an inch) in diameter. In seeking a place 

 to lay her eggs, the mother insect seems to preferably choose the 

 rankest tufts of grass in pastures or where the growth is the 

 rankest in grain fields or meadows. Finding a suitable stalk of 

 grass or grain, the moth clasps a blade or leaf with her legs and 

 then deftly thrusts her ovipositor into the as yet unfolded base of 

 the leaf or more often down into the sheath where it surrounds 

 the stalk. She is thus engaged from one to four minutes at a spot. 

 During this time from 10 to 50 or even more eggs may be laid and 

 covered with a thin white glutinous substance which fastens them 

 together and also draws the sides of the leaf close around them. 



* The egg has always been described as smooth and white. Yet the hun- 

 dreds of eggs which we have seen had a distinct yellowish tinge, and under 

 the microscope the surface of the shell was prettily marked with a net- work 

 of very fine striae or ridges ; the white substance with which the moth 

 covers her eggs obscures this net- work. 



