47 
moths from the larve, the former appearing during late October. These 
breedings would seem to indicate that at least some of the fall brood 
may winter over in the adult stage. 
A NEW CUT-WORM. 
(Luperina (Hadena) stipata Morr.) 
On May 28, while searching for Sphenophorus in a field of corn 
planted on recently broken prairie sod, a depredator was found which 
both in itself and method of work was new to me. Though the young 
corn was at the time several inches high, many of the plants were with- 
ering and dying, but aside from this neither the plant itself nor the 
earth about it gave the least indication of the presence or nature of the 
destroyer. Digging down in the earth about the hills, one or more of 
the shoots would be found wholly or partly eaten off, either near or a 
short distance above the seed, and in a single instance the seed kernel 
itself was observed being eaten. The method of attack appeared to be 
to first eat into the tender stem and then to burrow upward, after the 
manner of Gortyna nitela, above ground, and as soon as one plant was 
consumed another was attacked, without the worm coming to the sur- 
face. The larve were rather slender, from half to three-fourths of an 
inch long, quite active and in general coloration somewhat resembling 
the larvee of Orambus zeellus, but being more robust, spinning no web 
and living wholly under ground. Larve taken from the field June 8, 
continued feeding in confinement until early in July, and the moths 
appeared in the breeding cage about the 25th of the same month. On 
account of being absent from home much of the time between the mid- 
dle of June and 20th of July, it was impossible for me to get exact 
dates. 
My own collections of larvie were from recently broken prairie sod 
only, none being found in timothy or blue-grass sod adjoining. Farmers 
in the vicinity of this field state, however, that the worm does work in 
timothy sod, and serious damage in a fall-plowed fisld was attributed 
to their work. 
Under date of June 15, Mr. J.C. Besom, of Anderson, Madison County, 
Ind., wrote me that a kind of Cut-worm had appeared in his fields 
which he had never observed before. They began working on clover 
sod, about May 10, and destroyed the first planting of corn, and were: 
at the date of writing making way with the second planting, working 
underground and eating the plants from the roots upward to the sur- 
face of the ground. 
The larve are whitish, striped on the back with brown, head and 
cervical shield yellowish. Their general form is more slender and longer 
than that of ordinary cut-worms, being nearer that of Gortyna, 
