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INJURIOUS INSECTS OF I909 AND I9Q1O. 
Atwater, St. Paul, Ada, Hibbing, Hastings, Grove City, Kimball, 
Duluth and Sauk Center; showing the generally unusual distribution 
of these pests over the state. Several species were probably respon- 
sible for the injuries. Those shown upon our colored plates were, 
for the most part, numerous; but they by no means represent all 
the varieties present during the two past years. 
Two instances well illustrate the unusual abundance of this pest 
in 1910: A gardener in Minneapolis brought us something like 
fifty or sixty cutworms (species not determined at the time) which 
he had dug from the soil along a row of onions, not more than fifty 
feet long; while a member of our staff dug up from about a small 
piece of golden glow, not more than two feet square, last spring, 
thirty to forty cutworms. 
Cutworms are the larval forms of moths belonging to the family 
known as Noctuids, or Owlet Moths. The first name was given 
this family because they are particularly night-fiyers, most of them 
remaining concealed during the day; and the second name, on 
account of the fact that their eyes shine at night, in the presence of a 
light, to which, by the way, many of the species are attracted. 
Living normally in sod land, what could be more natural than that 
when deprived of this by farm cultivation, they should attack the 
crop immediately following. They may be, therefore, very severe 
on crops following sod. The larvae, like the moths, work at night, 
and conceal themselves, either in the ground an inch below the 
surface or under some protecting material, in the early morning. 
Both the moths and their larvae are fond of sweets; and this fact 
is made use of both by collectors in catching the moths and by the 
farmer and gardener in killing the “cutworm”’ itself. The larva, 
when full grown, averages in length about one and one-half inches, 
and is, as a rule, dull colored, with or without obscure markings 
(see colored plate). This full-grown larva burrows into the soil a 
short distance, and turns into a brownish or reddish-brown or 
mahogany-colored pupa (see Figs. 14 and 15, colored plate). These 
pupae may winter over, when formed late in summer, or give rise 
to moths in August and September, which lay their eggs at that 
time on various plants, or on the ground near their food-plants. 
The larvae which hatch in late summer or fall, winter over in some 
concealed situation, and are ready for business in the spring. 
While many birds prey upon cutworms—and although they are 
eaten by some other insects, and are the victims of parasitic forms, 
to say nothing of diseases bacterial or fungoid—nevertheless we 
