THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 69 



Dr. Fitch states that he had great difficulty in breeding these cut- 

 worms to the perfect moths, "as the worms on finding themselves im- 

 prisoned, hurriedly crawl around and around the inner side of their 

 prison, night after night, until they literally travel themselves to 

 death." Consequently the natural history of but one or two of them 

 has hitherto been known. I have found, however, that by giving 

 them the proper conditions they are not so very difficult to breed, 

 and after giving some account of a certain class of cut-worms 

 which have the habit of climbing up trees, I will briefly describe 

 those species which I have traced through their transformations, 

 so that they may be readily recognized, and afterwards suggest 

 the proper remedies. 



CLIMBING CUT-WORMS. 



Orchardists in spring frequently find the hearts of their fruit buds 

 — on young trees especially — entirely eaten out and destroyed, and 

 this circumstance is attributed to various causes, winged insects, 

 beetles, slugs for instance ; or even to late frosts, unsuitable climate, 

 etc. Never have cut-worms received the blame, all of which should 

 be ascribed to them, fcr the game hold of many species on a sandy 

 soil in early spring, is the fruit tree. This is a very important fact to 

 fruit raisers, and let those who have essayed to grow the dwarf apple 

 and pear, on a sandy soil, and have become discouraged, as many 

 have, from finding their trees affected each year in this way, take 

 hope; for knowing the cause, they may now easily prevent it. 



These climbing cut-worms will crawl up a tree eight or ten feet 

 high, and seem to like equally well the leaves of the pear, apple and 

 grape. 



They work during the night, always descending just under the 

 surface of the earth again at early dawn, which accounts for their 

 never having been noticed in this their work of destruction in former 

 years. They seldom descend the tree as they ascend it, by crawling, 

 but drop from the bud or leaf on which they have been feeding; and 

 it is quite interesting to watch one at early morn when it has become 

 full fed and the tender skin seems ready to burst from repletion, and 

 see it prepare by a certain twist of the body for the fall. This fact 

 also accounts for trees on hard, tenacious soil, being comparatively 

 exempt from them, as their instinct doubtless serves them a good turn 

 either in preventing them from ascending or by leading the parent 

 moth to deposit her eggs by preference on a light soil. 



These facts were published in the Prairie Farmer of June 2, 1866, 

 accompanied with descriptions by myself of three of the worms that 

 were found to have this habit; and the observations were made on 

 Mr. J. W. Cochran's farm at Calumet, Illinois. In speaking of these 

 same climbing cut-worms, in the same article Mr. Cochran says : 



" They destroy low branched fruit trees of all kinds, except the 

 peach, feeding on the fruit buds first, the wood buds as a second 



