a1 
try or other in varying amount. Where farms are carefully and 
cleanly cultivated, and not contiguous to waste or swampy land, and 
eround to be planted in wheat is early plowed, damage from 
these pests will not often be experienced. 
The two worst depredators only need be discussed, namely, 
the army worm, Leucania unipuncta (figs. 18 and 19), and 
the grass worm, or fall army worm, Laphygma frugiperda. 
THE ARMY WORM. 
(Leucania unipuncta Haw.) 
Serious army-worm outbreaks are most common in the 3 
months of May and June, or sometimes as late as July, when 
wheat, oats, and other small grains, corn, timothy, and vari- 
ous grasses, with the exception of clover, are occasionally 
suddenly overrun by multitudes of the dark-colored, naked, 
striped caterpillers of this insect. These hordes of larvee 
usually travel in one direction, passing from one field to 
another, destroying crops as they go. They have a habit, 
also, of climbing the stalks of such grasses as timothy and the 
small grains and cutting off the stems just below the head. 
The army worm seems to be an indigenous North Ameri- 
can insect, but has become widely distributed in foreign 
‘countries, and is now practically cosmopolitan. It, how- 
ever, is not known to be especially injurious outside of the 
United States, and as an injurious farm pest its damage is 
practically confined to the region east of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, including Texas, and north of the tier of Gulf States. 
; Description.—The adult in- 
sect is a pale or yellowish- 
brown moth, with a white spot Fis. 1s—army 
onthecenterofeachfore-wing. “om ce 
fas} nia UNnt~pUnc- 
Its minute white eggs are usu- ta,full-grown 
a 2 larva, natu- 
ally laid in numbers from two jai size (irom 
to three to twenty in strings Comstock). 
beneath the sheaths of grass stems, a 
strong effort evidently being made by 
the female moth to conceal her litter. 
% They are occasionally deposited also in 
Fic. 19.—Leucania unipuncta, moth above, Other situations or beneath tke leaf 
A a annie ait Shirl alde. dint sheaths or loose bark of other plants. 
Comstock). The eggs hatch in from eight to ten 
days, and the young caterpillars feed for a time in the fold.of the leaf, 
but grow rapidly and soon consume entire leaves. 


«This general account of the insect is condensed from Circular 4, second series, 
Division of Entomology, prepared by Dr. L. O. Howard. 
132 
