72 FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OP 



occurrence, for the reason that the mischief was attributed to birds. 

 Thus our Quail, Purple-finch, and many other birds, have too often 

 unjustly received the execrations of the culturist, which that evil ge- 

 nius the cut- worm, alone deserved. To understand an enemy's foible 

 is to have conquered, and when we learn the source of an evil it need 

 exist no longer. The range of these climbing worms seems to be 

 wide, for we have undoubted evidence of their attacking the grape- 

 vine, even in California, and I have found two species in Missouri, 

 which have the same habit. Climbing cut-worms frequently have the 

 same habit of severing plants, as those which have never been known 

 to climb, and I very much incline to believe that this habit is only 

 acquired in the spring time, and most cut-worms will mount trees if 

 they are forced to do so, by the absence of herbaceous plants. 



THE VARIEGATED CUT-WORM.— PI. 1, Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4. 

 (Larva of the Unarmed Rustic, Agrotis inermis, Harris.) 



During the latter part of May, Mr. Isidor Bush, of Bushburg, Mo., 

 brought me several greasy-looking worms, which had been feeding 

 on, and doing considerable damage to a lot of young Creveling grape- 

 vines, which he had in cold frames. As I ascertained afterwards, up- 

 on visiting Mr. Bush's place, they lay concealed during the day, just 

 under the surface of the rich earth, contained in the frames, and 

 mounted the vines to feed, during the night time. The weather be- 

 ing warm, Mr. B. at my suggestion, threw open the frames during the 

 day and allowed the chickens to get in them, and two days after do- 

 ing this, there was not a worm to be found. By the 30th of May, these 

 worms had grown to be of great size, measuring nigh two inches in 

 length. When full grown they are mottled with dull flesh-color, 

 brown and black, with elongated, velvety-black marks each side, as 

 shown at Plate 1, Figure 2. The head is light gray and mottled, and 

 marked as shown in Figure 3, and each segment on the back appears 

 as in Figure 4 of the same plate. 



About the time these worms were completing their growth, they 

 having most likely developed earlier than usual, in the unnatural heat 

 of the frames, I received from J. M. Shaffer, Secretary of the Iowa 

 State Agricultural Society, some eggs which he found on a cherry 

 twig. These eggs were quite small, of a pink color, with ribs radiat- 

 ing from a common centre, and were deposited in a batch. Exactly 

 similar eggs, found on an apple twig, were presented to the Alton 

 Horticultural Society, at its June meeting, by Mr. L. W. Lyon, of Be- 

 thalto, Ills.; winle I subsequently found a batch of the very same eggs 

 on a White mulberry leaf, taken from a tree growing near St. Louis. 

 Between the 24th and 30th of May, the young hatched from these 

 eggs, in the shape of minute, thread-like worms of a dirty yellow col- 

 or, and covered with the spots, already spoken of as occurring on all cut- 

 worms, which are at this time in this species quite dark and conspic- 

 uous. In this early stage of their growth, they did not hide themselves 



