INSECTS INJURIOUS TO CORN. 323 



nearby meadows. If the green wheat or other grains or grasses be un- 

 handy, they will attack corn and devour not only the leaves but eat of 

 the stem, and frequently eat their way through and about the green ear 

 of corn. In the great majority of cases, however, these fall army-worms 

 enter the wheat fields in the fall and devour the young green wheat. 

 Agriculturists frequently become very much alarmed by the presence 

 of vast numbers of these worms eating the wheat, but frequently they 

 do much less damage than the agriculturist is, as a rule, disposed to 

 admit. The fact of the matter is, that these larvae may eat off Very 

 thoroughly every vestige of wheat above ground in the fall of the year, 

 and yet the wheat suffers very little, if any, from such an attack. The 

 wheat will come up in the spring as if nothing had happened, and may 

 even grow considerably in the fall after the worms have ceased to work. 



Like the true army-worm, the larvae of the 



fall army-worm, in their various broods, enter 



the ground in order to pupate. The winter, 



however, is passed in the pupa stage, rarely hi 



the adult stage. 



While the true army-worm feeds upon al- 

 most all the members of the grass family, with 

 an occasional change of diet, the fall army-worm 

 seems to be broader in its selection of food, and 

 while the grasses, including, of course, the 

 grains and corn, form its principal diet, yet ^Fig^_ ^'TlpZgTn"^!! frZ'- 

 the insect has been known to attack the fall ^J^'lf "size • ?f "!\ving"'shi4'-" 



fi1 1 r i. • 1 • ii 11 • ing variations, natural size, 



elds of turnips and ruin them, and also various (From Riiey.) 



other succulent garden vegetables and plants, even feeding upon the 



leaves of certain trees. 



NATURAL ENEMIES. 



Why it is that the first or the second brood of the true army-worm 

 is so great in numbers while the first and second brood of the fall army- 

 worm is so reduced in numbers as to attract no attention is something 

 which we do not understand. One would expect that the birds and pre- 

 daceous and parasitic insects, that succeed in preventing the development 

 of the fall army worm, would likewise check the early development of 

 the true army-worm at that season of the year. The facts are, however, 

 tliat the fall army-v/orm seems to increase in numbers with each succeed- 

 ing brood throught:)ut the season, so that it is only the fall brood that 

 ever becomes unduly numerous ; while, on the other hand, the true army- 

 worm frequently becomes unduly numerous in the spring and early sum- 



