50 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETABLES 



"general feeders," and al)le to eke out a living wherever they 

 may be. Thus it happens tliat they are to be found in most 

 gardens and nearly everywhere else, in pasture land, vineyards, 

 fields and orchards, and even in greenhouses. 



The species are very numerous, and many of them, like white 

 grubs and wireworms, were the original inhabitants of the soil 

 of this country, but some have been supplanted in injuriousness 

 by species introduced from abroad. Taken as a class, cutworms 

 rank with such insects as the San Jose scale, Hessian fly, the 

 chinch-bug, and others of our worst pests. 



When conditions favor the multiplication of cutworms they 

 will feed upon anything green and succulent, whether foliage, 

 flowers, buds, fruit, stalks, tubers, or roots. Although nearly 

 ubi(juitous, they are more especially destructive in truck gar- 

 dens, and young, tender plants when first set out, such as 

 tomatoes, cabbage, and plants just appearing above the soil, 

 such as potatoes and corn, suffer most seriously. Several are 

 destructive to foliage of fruit trees, and from their habit of 

 climbing, are known as climbing cutworms; while in years of 

 unusual abundance, some assume the army worm habit. 



Cutworms are the progeny of owdet moths (fig. 27, c), and are 

 nocturnal, remaining hidden during the day to come forth at 

 night, the moths to mate and deposit their eggs, the cutworms 

 to feast upon whatever happens to be most available and 

 palatable. 



There are so luany species of injurious cutworms — between 

 two or three score — that it is impossible to give a description 

 that would fit all, but most common species are robust, soft- 

 bodied, smooth or nearly smooth, cylindrical caterpillars, varying 

 in color from pale whitish or dirty gray (like fig. 28, a), to near- 

 ly black, many being more or less plainly striped or spotted, as 

 is the case with the w-markcd cutworm shown in figure 25. 



They seldom attract attention except in early spring, and 

 then experienced persons can only too readily detect their 



