274 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



Other uncultivated plants and will g-et into the garden vegetables and feed 

 upon sweet potatoes, strawberries and the like. 



During the daytime they hide under rubbish of all kind or under 

 stones, or bury themselves a little ways in the ground, sometimes trying 

 to carry part of the way with them pieces of the plants upon which they 

 have been feeding, evidently with the intention of feeding there out of 

 sight during the daytime. In the evening they come forth again and 

 feed in their characteristic manner, doing more or less mischief accord- 

 ing to the plant upon which they are feeding and according to the num- 

 bers in which they appear. 



At this season of the year these insects have a peculiar habit of 

 eating through and cutting down, just above the surface of the ground, 

 the various small and succulent plants, like wheat and corn. They thus 

 feed and gorge themselves, rarely remaining at the same plant until they 

 have partaken of sufficient food, but pass on to other plants and cut 

 them down in like manner. At this stage of the larva, which is now 

 nearly full grown, the creature appears as a fat, smooth larva, of about 

 an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half in length, with a wide gray 

 stripe down the back, and a dusky or dingy-gray along the sides. The 

 head is dark brown in color, and there is also a dark-brown area on the 

 back of the tail-end of the worm. The spiracles or breathing pores are 

 black. A good idea of the appearance of these larvae may be had by 

 observing the two enlarged ones in figure 33. 



The amount of food that these larvae now consume during the 

 night is amazing. They gorge themselves until they appear ready to 

 burst, and the damage they do when in sufficient numbers in a corn 

 field is considerable, because of the fact that they cut down so much more 

 corn than they eat. The same rule applies to their habits in a wheat field 

 or in the vegetable garden. 



During June these larvae enter the ground about two inches and 

 soon change to mahogany-colored pupae. They now remain here in 

 the pupae stage for a long time in comparison with the summer pupa 

 stage of most insects, for they do not change to adults until August and 

 the forepart of September. It will thus be seen that with this dingy 

 cutworm there is but one generation each year, and that the damage the 

 insect does occurs in the late spring and early summer, from the time the 

 larvae come out from their hibernating quarters until the time they enter 

 the ground to pupate. 



Since the parasitic and predaccous enemies of this insect and the 

 methods to be used to control it are similar to those for most other 

 cutworms, we will defer the discussion of these points until we have 

 discussed one other cutworm. CSee under variegated cutworm.) 



