3i6 



MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



hatching and appearance of the various stages of these insects through- 

 out this State. In central Missouri the eggs begin to hatch about the 

 first of May, which is about one week after the eggs are deposited. 

 The young larvae or worms, as soon as they hatch, feed upon the leaves 

 of their food plant. 



The plants that these insects will feed upon include especially the 

 members of the grass family. They are not very particular in their 



Fig. 58. — Light and dark varieties of Army-Worms, Leucania unipuncta, twice 

 natural size. (From Slingerland.) 



menu, but, nevertheless, seem to prefer oats, corn, timothy, wheat, barley, 

 rye, Hungarian grass, millet, sorghum and flax. While they seem to 

 prefer these plants, they will eat onions, peas, beans and other garden 

 crops. 



The worms seem to shun the direct rays of the sun and seek shel- 

 tered places. This is usually provided for them by the fact that the 

 adult moths seek those places containing the rankest growth of grasses 

 and other vegetation. The larvae feed especially on cloudy days and in 

 the evening and night, and when disturbed they have a tendency to drop 

 to the ground. 



The grass in which these larvae hatch may be very badly infested 

 without their presence being detected by the agriculturist. When these 

 worms are very numerous, they succeed in eating the plants to such an 

 extent that by the time they are half grown the proper amount of food 

 in that locality has become too scarce for them, and they then take it 

 into their little heads all at once to crawl in search of a fresh supply 

 of food. In doing »o these \vorms crawl in a mass, each one seeming. 



