TjIK liULLETlN. 13 



earth. Sometimes they climb up the stora of a plant and feed on the 

 leaves. Their damage to cabbage consists in eating off the young plants 

 at the ground. Sometimes they pull the severed end of the young stalk 

 into the ground where they may feed on it the following day. 



When the larva (or cutworm) becomes grown (which varies accord- 

 ing as the moth is to emerge in spring and fall) it changes to the pupa 

 stage in the earth, an inch or so under the surface. The great majority 



Fig. 3. — Pupa of the Granulated Cutworm. About natural size. (After Z. P. Metcalf.) 



of cutworms that do damage in spring change to the pupa state in May 

 (or about) and it is because they have matured and changed that they 

 cease their injuries, and not on account of any epidemic of disease 

 among them as some seem to think. The pupa is a sort of spindle- 

 shaped object, brown in color, and in this stage the insect does not move 

 about nor take food, it is simply going through the change from the cut- 

 worm to the parent moth. After about two weeks the adult moth breaks 

 out from the pupa shell and after hardening and drying like a young 

 chick just out of the egg, it is ready for an active flying life. The life 

 of the adult moth is short, probably only a week or two to allow for 

 mating and laying of eggs. The moths are often attracted to bright 



Fig. 4.— Adult moth of the Granulated Cutworm. Slightly enlarged. (Photo by Z. P. Metcalf.) 



lights, and not infrequently they enter houses and flutter about the 

 lamps or walls. The flying moth does not develop to any other form, 

 but dies soon after eggs are laid. 



Natural Enemies. — Almost every kind of insect is subject to the 

 attacks of other insects, larger animals, or diseases, and fortunately 

 for us cutworms are not exceptions to this rule. Among birds the in- 

 sect eating kinds which spend much time on the ground are the most 

 Tiseful, especially the bob white, crow, black birds, meadow lark, spar- 

 rows, cat bird, mocking bird, etc. These, in the course of a season, 

 and especially when rearing their young, pick up many a juicy cut- 

 worm. The common and much despised toad is also a helper, for he 

 comes forth from his hiding place at dusk, and cutworms are one of the 



