222 



States, and all of them are more or less similarly marked, and of simi- 

 lar habits ; some feed during dull, cloudy days, while others feed only at 

 night, or in the* evening or morning; some dig holes near the plants 

 they injure, and draw the leaves they have cut from the. plants into 

 their hole or receptacle to be eaten at leisure during the day, while 



Fig. 3. 



others attack only young plants, eating 

 them off close to the ground ; one or more 

 species are said to climb trees and shrubs 

 and cut oft' their shoots, leaves, and buds. 



Among the most common of the cut- 

 worms in this part of the country is the 

 " dingy cut-worm," Agrotis jaculifera, (Fig. 

 3,) which cuts off the plants near the sur- 

 face of the ground, and either eats them at 

 night or draws them into the hole it inhabits during the day, and de- 

 vours them at leisure. A species of digger-wasp fAmmojyhilaJ is said to 

 destroy this cut- worm, carrying the caterpillars to its nest and stor- 

 ing them as food for its young. 



Agrotis svfftisa, (Fig. 4,) the dark sward-grass worm or moth, is of 

 somewhat similar habits; the caterinllar of the lance rustic, Agrotis teli- 

 /era, (Fig. 5,) or greasy cut-worm, is nocturnal, and an omnivorous feeder. 

 This insect by some is said to be the same as A. suffusa. The unarmed 

 rustic, or variegated cut-worm, in the young caterpillar state, before 

 the first moult of the skin, is said to be somewhat gregarious, and to 

 have a peculiar leaping gait, and to live on leaves, but after the first 

 moult they lose the habit of leaping, and begin to show the true cut- 

 worm habit of hiding in the day under the surface of the ground, and of 

 cutting down vegetables, &c. i? -3^^^* 



Agrotis clandestina, or the clandestine owlet moth of Harris, is said to 

 drag its food, consisting of leaves of young plants, to places of conceal- 

 Fig. 4. ment, under stones, &c., and also 



to have the habit of climbing 

 trees and shrubs, to cut off their 

 leaves and blossoms during the 

 evening. The caterpillars of 

 Agrotis siihgothica, (Fig. 6,) or the 

 western striped cut- worm, eats 

 stems and lower leaves of plants, 

 and the insects appear in sum- 

 mer, while the cabbage cut-worm 

 of Harris, Agrotis devastator, deposits its eggs in the autumn at the 

 roots of plants ; these are said to hatch in May, and while in the cater- 

 pillar state (about four weeks' duration) feed upon the lower leaves of 

 vegetables. The caterpillars of Agrotis seandens, or the climbing rustic, 

 at night ascends trees and shrubs to cut oft" their blossoms and leaf-buds. 

 There are other species of cut-worms known to our naturalists, which 

 we will not mention in this article, as enough has been said to give some 

 general idea of the habits and food of the principal species of cut- worms 

 in our own neighborhood, all of which are shared by the agrotidic or cut- 

 worms in general. 



Many of these insects are destroyed when in the caterpillar state by 

 the footless larva of a TacMna or two-winged fly, which lives in their 

 bodies. Many species of ichneumon-flies also destroy them in a similar 

 manner. Wasps carry them oft' to their nests as food for tbeir young, 

 while multitudes of the grubs are destroyed by crows, black-birds, &c., 

 when plowed up in the spring and lying helpless on the surface of the 



