NATURAL HISTORY AND HABITS. 



The adult insect is a brown moth with a white spot on the center of 

 each fore-wiiio;, as inchcated at ¥i<^. 2. The eggs are very minute and 

 white in color, round, and are laid in strings of from 2 or 3 to 15 or 20. 

 They are pushed by the ovipositor of the female moth down into the 

 inner.base of the terminal leaf sheaths of grasses or grains. (See also 

 Fig. 2.) A strong effort is apparently made by the female moth to 

 conceal them. They are laid most abundantly in the thickest tufts of 

 grass which customarily spring up in pastures over spots where cattle 

 liave dro])ped. In the vicinity of old fodder stacks the grass usually 

 grows high, and this also is a favorite place for egg-laying. The moths 

 do not confine their egg-laying operations to such localities, however, 



and the eggs have been found in old 

 cornstalks, thrust under the sheath, and 

 even under the bark of old cedar posts. 

 The eggs are hatched in from eight 

 to ten days and the young caterpillars 

 feed for a time in the fold of the leaf, 

 growing rapidh^, and fuially consum- 

 ing entire leaves. 



Under ordinary circumstances, and 

 when not present in great numbers, 

 the larvae feed mainly at night and in 

 damp cloudy weather, remaining hid- 

 den during sunshiny days. In this 

 respect the}" resemble in habits the 

 closely allied cutworms. They reach 

 full growth in three or four weeks, burrow into the ground, and 

 transform to the brown pupte sho^^^l at Fig. 2. In this condition 

 they remain in the summer time on an average about two weeks, 

 when the moth again appears. 



The number of generations each year varies with the climate and the 

 season. There are, in the more northern States, two or three genera- 

 tions, and perhaps six in the more southern States. 



We have said above that the insect normally feeds by night and 

 hides by day, and to this habit is due the fact that, although the army 

 worm is present every j^ear all through the region especially indicated 

 in a previous paragraph, it is only noticed when it becomes excessively 

 abundant, and this occurs usually only at intervals of several years. 



With a favorable succession of seasons the insect multiplies in geo- 

 xnetrical ratio, and at last becomes so numerous as to necessitate migra- 

 tion for food. It then travels and feeds during both day and night, 

 and it is then that the insect becomes very injurious and that reports 

 of great damage are heard. 



The insect passes the winter normally, as do most of the related cut- 

 worms, in the half-grown caterpillar or larval condition. In the South 



iFiG. 2.— The Army Worm {Leucania uni- 

 puncta): Moth above, pupa below, and 

 eggs in natural position in a grass leaf — 

 all natural size. (From Comstoek.) 



