REPOBT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



189 



The full-grown caterpillar is a handsome creature between 1^ inches and If inches 

 in length, cylindrical in shape, about tV of an inch in diameter. The general colour 

 being velvety black, with white longitudinal stripes; head, red, black in front; legs, 

 reddish. The dorsal area is more or less shaded with brick red ; dorsal stripe of velvety- 

 black diamond-shaped marks ; the lower edges of the dorsal area clearly detined by a 

 black line, shaded beneath with an equally distinct white thread; sides dull-black, 

 spotted with a few white points which hardly form a line. Spiracles black ; sub- 

 stiginatjjl band distinct, white and undulating, bearing in the centre a very ragged 

 black line washed with yellow, the upper margin dipping below each spiracle and then 

 running up considerably higher than it towards the posterior margin of each segment. 

 Ventral surface semi-translucent, dusky, mottled with white, the green contents of the 

 body showing through the thin skin. When full-grown, about the end of May, the 

 caterpillars burrow rather deeply into the ground and turn to dark brown chrysalids 

 from which the moths emerge about a month or six weeks later. The perfect insect is 

 for a cutworm moth handsome, and all the markings are sharply defined. It expands 

 about 1^ inches across the wings. The upper wings are dark blackish-brown, the orbi- 

 cular and reniform spots white, bearing a few yellow or reddish scales and outlined 

 with black. In the male the inner margin of the. upper wings is yellowish brown, 

 by which this sex can be recognized at once. The lower wings are gray, darker at the 

 margins. There is in Professor Lugger's Second Report a beautiful plate by L. M. Hart, 

 showing the caterpillars, the chrysalis and the perfect moths. 



Remedies. — When the Black Army-worm attacks field crops, remedial measures 

 must be taken with due regard to the nature and condition of the crop to be protected. 

 In all instances which I have seen when the caterpillars were abundant enough to march 

 in swarms, it has been possible to forestall them by adopting the well known methods 



used against the true Army-worm, namely,, 

 running a deep furrow in advance of 'them, 

 burning them in wind-rows of straw, or poison- 

 ing them by spraying a strip of the vegetation 

 before they reach it, with a strong poisonous 

 mixture. In gardens, they may be advantage- 

 ously combated by the same methods used 

 against other cutworms. Owing to their large 

 size at the time when garden vegetables are 

 very small, two or three caterpillars can in a 

 .siingle night work terrible havoc in young 

 vegetables grown in rows. This was the case 

 at Ottawa last spring where the larvae of this 

 species worked at the same time with the cater- 

 pillars of the White Cutworm {Carneades 

 scandens, Riley, Fig. 13) and the Red-backed Cutworm {Carneades ochrogaster, Gn.) and 

 all three species were particularly troublesome in radish beds. 



Fig. 13.— The White Cutworm. 



The White-Cutworm (Carneades scandens, Riley), " The Climbing Cutworm ' 

 of i)r. Riley, is an uncommon species at Ottawa and has not been sent in from else- 

 where, although it is recorded as having done much damage to orchard trees iu 

 Western Ontario some years ago. The full-grown caterpillar measures about 1 J inches 

 in length. Its general «olour is a pinkish white. The head, the thoracic feet and the 

 thoracic and anal shields are yellowish-brown, dotted with minute black points The 

 spiracles are deep black and the piliferous tubercles very dark, but not so black as 

 the spiracles. This cutworm is easily recognized by its delicate whitish almost glaucous 

 colouring. I was surprised to find it in large numbers at Ottawa in a garden with 

 only two small poplar trees growing near. These were in no way injured, but it 

 seemed as though the cutworms spread from a bed of Couch-grass (Agropyrum rejjens, 

 Beauv.) which was growing at the base of one of these trees. The White Cutwonn 

 passes the winter about half grown, but in the piece of sandy land where the attack 



