90 FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF 



fierce insects often wage terrible battles when they encounter each 

 other, and (hey will eat each other as readily as cut- worms, as I found 

 whenever I put more than one of them into my collecting box. He 

 that would breed these insects to the perfect state, must pack the dirt 

 in his breeding box as hard as a wagon road, or be will fail, as 1 always 

 did before I saw their operations in the held. In using moderately 

 compact earth, the larva digs it over and over, endeavoring to find a 

 suitably dense place, works up the dirt into balls, until its feet are 

 clogged up with earth and juices from its mouth, and it sinks ex- 

 hausted and dies. In a few days after it enters the ground, the beau- 

 tiful spotted, perfect beetle appears, and, strangely, the smell of the 

 beetle is peculiar and entirely different from the larva." 



Thifc Cut-worm lion has quite a formidable appearance, and is ex- 

 ceedingly agile. It is flattened, of a black color, with six legs upon 

 the breast, and a pair of sharp hook-like jaws projecting in front of its 

 head. It pursues the worms in their retreats under the ground, and 

 seizes them wherever it comes in contact with them. Sometimes a 

 young Cut- worm lion will seize a worm twice as large as itself, and 

 will cling with bull dog tenacity to its prey, through all its throes, its 

 writhings and twistings, till at last the worm succumbs, exhausted, 

 and the victor bites two or three holes through its skin and proceeds 

 to suck out its juices. 



Some kinds of spiders are also known to prey on cut-worms, and 

 these unwisely unpopular little animals should always be cherished 

 and protected. Poultry is also quite efficient in destroying them, and 

 chickens are better than any other kind. I.cannot too strongly urge 

 their claims as cut-worm destroyers, than by giving the statement of 

 Mr. Cochran, to- wit: that he believed he could not j^ossibly have 

 coped with the worms without the aid of a large brood of chickens 

 which he procured for that purpose. 



Artificial Remedies. — The climbing cut-w r orms are easily headed 

 off by a little vigilance. From the orchard planted upon light, warm 

 soils they can be driven away entirely by claying the ground about 

 the trees; a wheelbarrow full is well nigh enough for each tree when 

 spread around its base and as far as the limbs extend. This is the 

 most thorough and lasting. A small strip of tin, three inches wide, 

 carefully secured around the body of the tree, will effectually prevent 

 their ascension ; if the tin is old and rusty it will require to be a little 

 wider. Each night, after the swelling of the bud, an hour or two after 

 midnight a slight jar of the tree will bring every one on it down, when 

 they can be caught in a spread sheet and destroyed. This will have 

 to be followed up till the bud has unfolded into the leaf, after which 

 there is no longer anything to be apprehended from the worm. The 

 reasons why the clay is so efficient, are two-fold: 1st — The worms 

 seem to have an instinctive dislike to crawling over it. 2nd — In drop- 

 ping from the tree on to the hard surface they are frequently disabled, 

 and whether di.-abled or not, they cannot immediately burrow into it 



