INSECTS INJURIOUS TO CORN. i^jr 



spring, summer and fall, but these are, no doubt, from the same brood,. 

 the moths themselves living for a long time. So far as my observations- 

 go, it appears that these insects hibernate as adults during winter, and 

 come forth early in the spring as soon as warm weather appears, and 

 lay eggs upon the stems and twigs of various trees and shrubs, frequently 

 in orchards, especially where these orchards have become more or less 

 grown up with weeds and grasses, and also laying eggs upon the leaves 

 and stems of weeds. 



The eggs are found in large masses. Each t^% is semi-spherical in 

 shape and beautifully ribbed and marked as can be seen by referring to 

 figures 34, e, and 35, a, which represents these eggs greatly magnified- 

 In 34, /, and 35, h, we have a cluster of these eggs upon a twig, showrs 

 natural size. The eggs hatch in about fifteen days. 



The young larvae appear during the latter half of March and the 

 first half of April. They feed at first upon the tg,^ shells from which 

 they have been hatched and then attack the leaves of the plant upon which 

 they have been born and feed there for a short time. They then either 

 crawl or drop down to the ground, leaving the trees and shrubs, and 

 then feed upon the leaves of the various grasses and weeds near at hand. 

 By Ma}^ these larvae have become from half to two-thirds grown, and 

 they then assume the characteristic cutworm habit of cutting down vari- 

 ous succulent plants. These insects are likewise general feeders, and 

 attack almost any green vegetable substance found in the uncultivated 

 fields in the form of grass or weeds, or in our cultivated fields on corn, 

 wheat, timothy, alfalfa and clover, and in the garden upon almost any 

 vegetable that may be growing there, even relishing tobacco and onions, 

 and attacking berries, squashes, potatoes and the like. During the latter 

 third of the development of these larval cutworms, which usually occurs 

 during the month of May, these creatures do an immense amount of 

 damage to garden crops and also to corn and wheat. 



When the larva are full grown they measure about an inch and 

 three-fourths in length. They are also fat looking worms, of a dark, 

 dull, brown color, sometimes with a greenish tinge, and are faintly 

 mottled with gray and dark along their backs; while along the ventral 

 surface they are much lighter in color. The head is of a reddish yellow 

 color. These larvae differ considerably in their general appearance. 

 The light form is shown natural size in figure 34, h, and a darker form at d. 

 Two larvae, twice natural size, are shown in figure 35. When disturbed 

 these worms curl up as shown in figure 34, c. 



Occasionally when these cutworms, and also the preceding cutworms, 

 occur in vast numbers over a comparatively small area, they may tend 

 to migrate more or less or at least scatter about in search of food. 



