10 The Bulletin. 



Life-history and Habits. — There are a number of distinct species 

 of Cut-worms, but all are the caterpillar stage, or larvae, of moths. 

 The family Noctuidw to which they belong contains some 2,000 

 species in North America, and probably 500 or more are found in 

 North Carolina. It is likely, however, that our seriously destructive 

 Cut-worms do not number more than 20 or 30 species. In some 

 species the adult moth stage is reached in spring and early summer, 

 while in others it is not reached until fall, hence in both cases 

 the insects will be in the Cut-worm stage in early spring, while in late 

 spring and summer only the later species will be in the Cut-worm 

 stage. 



Mr. C. S. Brimley of Raleigh, who has long been interested in 

 collecting, rearing and studying insects, brought to maturity seven 

 different species of Cut-worms during 1903-'04. Of these, four 

 reached the moth stage in fall and two reached that stage in the 

 spring, while another species was only seen once, in midsummer. 

 From his observations it seems that at Raleigh for the spring species 

 June, and for the fall species September and October, are the prin- 

 cipal months of activity and egg-laying by the adult moths. 



The details in the life-history of a species will vary somewhat 

 according as it matures in the spring or in the fall, but the follow- 

 ing will serve as a general account of the life of a Cut-worm. 



The larvae (destructive Cut-worm stage) pass the winter in the 

 earth or on the surface under such shelter as they can find. At this 

 time they are only partly grown. In warm spells of weather they 

 may crawl about and feed on roots or green stems of grasses or hardy 

 weeds. Their long fast or season of scarcity of food gives them 

 ravenous appetites when the warm days of spring arouse them to 

 activity, and they then feed on any green succulent young plants that 

 they can find. Their greatest damage to cotton consists in eating 

 off young plants at or near the surface of the ground. Sometimes 

 they pull the severed end of the young stalk into the ground where 

 they may feed upon it during the following day. They usually 

 remain quiet during the day and feed only at night, but sometimes in 

 cool weather or on cloudy days they will work all day. Cool weather 

 in spring seems especially- to sharpen their appetites and such weather 

 makes the cotton backward so that it cannot readily recover from 

 injury. When the larva (or Cut-worm) becomes grown (which 

 varies according as the moth is to emerge in spring or fall), they 

 change to the pupa stage in the earth, an inch or so under the sur- 

 face. Those that are to emerge in spring or early summer change 

 to the pupa state in the middle or latter part of May, and it is be- 

 cause these larvae (Cut-worms) become mature at this season that 

 they cease their injuries, and not because of any epidemic of disease 

 among them. In the pupa state they have neither legs nor wings and 

 take no food — it is simply a stage of change from the larva (Cut- 



