1>I 



grouiul-cdlor of the back. Tin' freshly liaU-hcd caterpillars are greenish, 



with black heads. 



This is a very coiiiinou species, but is peculiar in its habits. It climbs 



plants freely at night to feed, even ascending bushes and fruit-trees, and 



devouring any succulent tissue which it 

 finds, including bud, fruit, flower, leaf, stalk, 

 and root of the ]ilant. It occurs frequently in 

 corn fields, although not oi'diiiarily conunoii 

 there. When very al)undant it sometimes 

 migrates in hordes like the army-worm, in 

 seai;ch of food, and under such circumstances 

 has been known to destroy hundreds of 

 acres of young corn in a comparatively short 

 time. It is pre-eminently a garden pest, 

 howeA'er. being particularly destructive to 

 fruits, vegetables, and flowers rather than 

 to grain, crops, weeds, and wild plants. A 

 i-emarkable outbreak of this cutworm oc- 

 curred in the year 1900 in the United States 

 and Canada, especially in the states of the 

 Tacific coast. Enormous damage was done 

 by it. ])articular1y to fruit and vegetable 

 croj^s. A full account of this occurrence 

 will be found in Bulletin 29, N. S., U. S. 

 Division of Entomology, and in Bulletin 47 

 Fig. (i. The Variegated Cut. of the lOxperimcut Station of Washington 



worm (Peridroma inariiaritosa . , , . 



so»«o), back and side views. En- state. Among its Icaduig foocl plants are 



large.!. , , ^ , • 



cabl^age, tomatoes, jiotatoes, clover, onions, 

 peas, beets, and carnations. 



. It occurs throughout nearly the whole of the New World, ami also 

 in western and southern Eiu'ope, northern Africa, and Asia Minor. 



The seasonal history of this species is not yet well understood. It 

 has been seen in winter as lar\a, as pupa, and as adult, and (Mitomolo- 

 gists differ, conseipiently, in their sttitements as to its norn\al hibernating 

 stage and the number of its broods. It agrees with most of he sjiecies, 

 however, in the fact that it is destructively active in early s|)ring. becom- 

 ing most injurious in Ahiy antl early Jiuie. pupating in June, and begin- 

 ning to ]irodu('e moths (Fig. 5. a) al)undantly in the latter part of that 

 month. The dixia which we have suggest at least two broods in a year, 

 but there is nothing conclusive upon tliat point, l^^ggs (Fig. 5, r, /) of 

 this species were sent to us March 27 on an apjile twig from \'andalia, 

 and others Avere sent us .\pril 17 from llanlin county, in southern Illi- 

 nois, which were just htttching wIumi rtM'tMved. The young cutworms 

 were kept on clover until Ahiy 2(1 by whiih lime they had reached an 



