CUT WORMS THEIR METAMORPHOSES. 311 



partook of the nature of a stiff clay, a number of cut-worms 

 were found, when there were scarcely any in the surrounding 

 gravelly soil; but it was probably the more juicy, tender growth 

 of the corn in this damp hollow, which caused the worms to 

 gather there, rather than the nature of the soil. 



I do not think the fertility of the soil, or the kind of manure 

 which is applied to it, has any influence upon these worms, ex- 

 cept in making the plants grow more succulent, for it is vegeta- 

 tion of this character which appears to be their favorite food. 

 We all know these worms are common in our highly manured 

 gardens. And I have never found them more plenty than on 

 one occasion among beans planted upon a hill-side, so barren that 

 it was thought nothing else could be raised there. 



The biography of these worms is briefly as follows : The parent 

 insect drops her eggs upon the ground, the latter part of summer. 

 These soon hatch, and the young worms which come from them 

 crawl into the ground and feed upon the roots and tender shoots 

 of herbaceous plants. When cold weather arrives they descend 

 a few inches below the surface and there lie torpid during the 

 winter, and renew their activity when spring returns. It is not 

 until they have nearly completed their growth, in the month of 

 June, that they show that habit which renders them so injurious, 

 and has acquired for them their name, " cut- worm." They then 

 crawl from the earth, by night, and with their sharp teeth cut 

 off the young succulent plants of maize, cabbage, beans, &c, 

 almost as smoothly as though it were done with a knife. When 

 daylight approaches, each worm crawls into the ground again, 

 entering it within a few inches of the plant it has severed — the 

 newly disturbed and rough appearance of the dirt showing the 

 exact spot where it has gone into the ground, and rendering it 

 easy to uncover and destroy the worm. Having got its growth 

 it forms a little oval cavity in the ground, within which it lies 

 and changes to a pupa or chrysalis. In this state it has some 

 resemblance to a long slim egg of a chestnut brown color, having 

 several impressed rings or joints towards its pointed or tail end. 

 From this pupa, in three or four weeks, hatches the perfect in- 

 sect, which is a dark colored miller or moth. 



