180 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 4 



Life History 



There are two generations in Iowa. The first brood of larvae feeds 

 mainly on timothy heads, while the second feeds largely on a number of 

 wild grasses, taking the second growth of timothy whenever the larvae 

 can find it. 



The insect winters in the pupa stage in the soil. The moths emerge 

 in May. This spring I found eggs on the base of timothy plants, 

 tucked under dried leaves there. Previou.sly eggs had been found 

 only in the sheath of some of the food plants in the summer. None 

 were found in that position in .the spring. The young larvae appear 

 about May 20 and begin to feed on leaves of timothy plants. They 

 were found only on timothy early in the year. When the timothy 

 heads appear the larvae go to them. 



The injury to timothj^ becomes conspicuous about haying time, 

 when the larvae are about mature. The larvae go to the ground in 

 July, pupate, and the moths emerge early in August. We began to 

 look for eggs on the base of timothy plants in August, where we had 

 found them in the spring. Not until we began to examine the sheath 

 of the plants did we find eggs. The eggs were deposited in single, 

 double or even triple rows, as Riley observed. 



Eggs hatched in the insectary in three to ten days. The larvae began 

 to appear outside about the middle of August, and were found as late 

 as October 15. When mature the larvae go into the soil, spending the 

 winter as pupae. 



Food Plants 



Previously this insect had been recordpid from most of the small 

 gfains, as the following list indicates: Wheat, timothy, barley (Lint- 

 ner), •rye, oats (Riley), sweet corn, sorghum (Miss Murtfeldt), wild 

 rice (Chittenden), Indian corn (Forbes). The grass-feeding habits 

 of the larvae had been noticed by Riley, Osborn and Smith, but I 

 have found ao records of any particular grasses as food plants. In 

 the Iowa work the following grasses were found to be eaten, either 

 the heads or the leaves being affected, or both. They were: blue 

 stem (Andropogon furcatus) , Indian grass {Sorghastrum nutans), barn- 

 yard grass (Echinochloa crusgalli), green foxtail (Setaria viridis), yellow 

 foxtail {Setaria glauca), red tbp {Calamagrostis canadensis), awned 

 wheat grass {Agropyron caninum), Agropyron sp., and squirrel tail 

 grass {Hordeum jubatum). Eggs have been found in the sheath of 

 speltz and Elymiis rohustus (robust lyme grass). These also are 

 probably food plants. 



