The Common Striped Cutworm. 



Euxoa tessclldUi Harr. 



About one and a onith inches in length, gray in general color, with 

 a pale centi'al dorsal line and three pale lines each side, the lower one the 

 broadest. 



The recorded food plants of this cutworm are corn, potato, onion, 

 tobacco, radish, squash, cabbage, lettuce, tomato, cele y, spinach, beans, 

 flax, cuciuiiber, melon, beet, and parsnip, toge her with smartweed, 

 Rumex, and various weeds, plum, apple, pear, and cherry. In confine- 

 ment it feeds freely upon grass, clover, buckwheat, box-elder, and lie 

 fleshy weeds. It is not on record as especially injurious to corn, being 

 evidently a garden species rather, and my own observations support this 

 statement. Cook found it injuring corn in Michigan, and Fitch in New 

 York, the latter treating it in his Ninth Report under the name o the 

 corn cutworm. 



It is essentially a northern species, very abundant in the northern 

 I'nited States and Canada, but less common in central Illinois and south- 

 ward. The caterpillar hides in the earth by day, 

 cuts off the plants by night about half an inch 

 above ground (and not below the siu'face, as do 

 the Hadenas), and drags the leaves into its hole 

 to feed upon them during the day. 



There is but one brood a year, and the cut- 



FiG. 17. The Common ., • , i 4. i ir i 



Striped Cutworm (Riixon worms pass the Winter al)Out halt grown, becom_ 

 esse a a , at u t. -^^^ most (lestructive in the latter part of May 



and the first of June. The moths (Fig. 17) are most abundant early in 

 July. They have been taken in Iowa from early June to the beginning of 

 August, and in Canada during the latter half of July and all of the follow- 

 ing month. 



The Red-backed Cutworm. 

 Eiixou ochrogaster Guen. 



This is a very well-marked species, the caterpillar (piite large, more 

 than an inch and a half long, gray or dull bi'own, with a broad sieinia-red 

 stripe down the middle of the back. 



It is a Canada cutworm especially, I'anging fi-oin Prince Edward 

 Island to Ri'itish (/olumbia, and often excessively abundant in that lati- 

 tude. It is less abundant in the ncM'thern United States, and is not 

 reported from localities farther south than Missouri, Colorado, and 

 California. 



It is regarded by Fletcher as the worst co n pest among the Canadian 

 cutworms. It is also particularly troul)lesome in gardens, attacking all 

 gaulen v('i>(>1al)les and flowei-iiiii- ainiuals. It has not been found 1)\- us 



