New Yoke Agricultural Experiment Station. 403 



the present time be modified, for the cabbage looper is not only 

 as numerous, but it is more difficult to combat than is the cabbage 

 worm. It is also a more general feeder, hence more plants must 

 be protected from its ravages. Writers on entomology have al- 

 ways given the cabbage looper credit for doing more damage in 

 the South than in the North. Whether the marked increase in the 

 amount of damage done the past few years on Long Island is 

 due to the fact that this section furnishes favorable southern con- 

 ditions, or whether the looper is gradually migrating north, is not 

 known. 



DESCRIPTION. 



As the cabbage looper is not generally as well known as the 

 cabbage worm a short popular description is given. 



Adult or moth. — The male is distinguished from the female 

 moth or miller by having a distinct tuft of reddish-brown hairs on 

 each side of the abdomen near the cauda, or tail; the cauda itself 

 being covered with a short tuft of dark drown hairs. Both male 

 and female moths have the fore wings mottled with dark brown, 

 brown and white; so that, when resting on the ground, they re- 

 semble the soil. On the upper surface near the center of each 

 forewing there is a silvery white mark, which in most cases resem- 

 bles the figure 8; occasionally it is- simply a dot-and-dash-like 

 mark. The head and fore-body (thorax) are dark, ashy grey, mot- 

 tled with brown. The abdomen, or hind-body, and hind-wings 

 are fawn color, varying to a dark brown near the outer margin, 

 the latter bordered with white. See Figs. 1 and 2, Plate XLII. 

 When spread the wings measure from one to one and one one-half 

 inches. 



Egg. — The egg is about as large as a black mustard seed, and 

 shaped somewhat like a turnip. It is ribbed, and in color is 

 nearly pure white. (Plate XLII, Fig. 3.) 



Larva or caterpillar. — When about one-fourth grown the cater- 

 pillar, or looper, is nearly as dark green as the cabbage worm and 

 is distinctly marked on the sides of the body with longitudinal 



