True Army Worm 



post is hauled up and down the furrow to crush the worms. The furrow 

 in connection with the poisoned bait makes a very effective combination. 



DESCRIPTION 

 The Egg 



The eggs have a smooth shining surface. When first laid they are 

 of a pearly white. As the young worm develops the color changes to a 

 creamy flesh color, gradually becoming darker until just before the young 

 worm emerges, when it is a dull gray. 



The moths appear to prefer the dense growth of grass or grain which 

 commonly grows on old stack bottoms or about manure piles or the 

 droppings of animals in pastures, as places to deposit their eggs. Injury 

 to small grain is often first observed where this heavy growth occurs 

 on old stacking grounds. 



The eggs often occur in clusters of a hundred or more. Usually 

 they are deposited in the sheath of grass and grain leaves, sometimes 

 between two leaves which happen to be fastened together. Egg laying 

 takes place during the night. A single female moth has been known to 

 lay 254 eggs, and as many as 800 developed and undeveloped eggs have 

 been taken from the abdomen of one moth.* 



The Worm 



In from eight to ten days after the eggs are laid, the young worms 

 appear. As they emerge from the egg they are whitish with brown heads. 

 The first act of the newly hatched worm is to eat the shell of the egg from 

 which it has just escaped. 



During the course of their development the worms shed their skins 

 several times. As soon as the worm has cast off its old coat it proceeds 

 to devour it as if attempting to cover up its trail. 



The full grown worms (Figs. 21 and 22, Plate I, Page 1 1) are variable 

 in color, some being considerably lighter than the figures. The figures 

 are so lifelike that a description of the coloring is not necessary. When 

 disturbed the worms curl up as shown in Figure 21. This is not char- 

 acteristic of the army worms alone, however, as many caterpillars, espec- 

 ially cutworms, have the same habit. When fully grown the army worms 

 enter the soil, where they form a cell in the same way as the cutworms. 

 In this cell the worm spins a thin, silken cocoon within which it changes 

 to the pupa. 



The Pupa 



The pupa (Fig. 24, Plate I, Page 11) of the army worm does not 

 differ greatly from that of the cutworms already mentioned. At first it 

 is a light creamy yellow. When fully colored it is of a rich mahogany 

 brown. At the tip there are four spine-like appendages as shown in the 

 figure. After spending from two to three weeks in the pupal stage the 

 moths appear. 



The Moth 



The moth (Fig. 25, Plate I, Page 11) is a night flyer and is seldom 

 seen on the wing during the day unless the weather is cloudy and damp. 



*Davis and Satterthwait. "Life Hist»ry Studies •( Cirbhis unibuncta. the True Army Werm," Journal 

 •f Agricultural Research. V«l. VI. No. 21 (1914.). 



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