THE ARMY- WORM. • 19 



male can deposit from 500 to 750 eggs, which hatch in the 

 course of six to ten days, according to the prevailing tem- 

 perature. The young larvae, which move like geometers on 

 account of the rudimentary first two pairs of prolegs, feed 

 as soon as born and, as true cut-worms, only during the 

 night, so that there may be millions in a field unknown to its 

 owner. The\^ require in warmer regions about one month to 

 reach their full size. The full-grown caterpillars vary greatly in 

 color and general appearance, but usually they have four lat- 

 eral, almost equally broad stripes, ofwhich the upper two are 

 white, the lower two yellow. The only characteristic fea- 

 tures of these caterpillars is their possessing a highly pol- 

 ished head mottled with confluent dark dots and marked by 

 two darker lines, which commence at the corners of the 

 mouth, approach each other near the center and recede 

 again behind. A full-grown army-worm measures l^/^ 

 inches. Entering the ground, it transforms inside of a cell 

 ofearthintoa rather stout pupa of a shiny mahogany- 

 brown color measuring three-quarters of an inch. With us the 

 insect hibernates as a partly -grown larva. The food consumed 

 by the arm^^-worm consists of grasses and cereals, including, 

 of course, corn. During their wanderings from one field to 

 another the hungry worms will bite into all sorts of plants, 

 and may cause considerable damage if they pass through a 

 field of flax; here they will bite off the seed-pods without, 

 however, utilizing the plants for food. This bad habit makes 

 the worm also very destructive to oats since in this case 

 they also bite ofl' the loosely arranged kernels and thus in- 

 jure more than they eat. The usual way of catching army- 

 worms is to trap them in ditches and dispose of them there; 

 this can be done in various wa3^s and one of the most simple 

 is to partly fill a ditch with straw and when fairly filled 

 with worms, ignite it after adding some kerosene-oil. An- 

 other way is to drag through such a ditch a short log which 

 will grind up the worms and at the same time keep the sides 

 of the ditch in a smooth condition which prevents the worms 

 from crawling out again. There are other remedies by means 

 ofwhich the worms can be destroyed by fire or by poisoning; 

 ditching is, however, the best and most simple remedy we 



