93 



ARTICLE IV. ON THE SPECKLED CUTWORM AS A CABBAGE 



WORM. 



{Agrotis c-nigrum L.) 

 Order Lepidoptera. Family Noctuid.e. 



(Plate X. Fig. 3.) 



Several times during the last three years, my attention has been 

 called to a large brownish gray caterpillar, marked with oblique 

 black dashes upon the posterior part of the back, found in June 

 and July boring the heads of early cabbage. The character of the 

 injury inflicted was much more serious than that done by the com- 

 mon cabbage worm, {Pleris rapce), not only because of the larger 

 size of the caterpillars but especially because of their habit of im- 

 mediately penetrating the head and mining in all directions, a single 

 larva thus destroying the head more completely and in less time 

 than would scores of the ordinary cabbage worm. This caterpillar 

 was by us determined as the larva of Agrotis c-nigrum, a common 

 noctuid moth, a determination verified later, several times, by breed- 

 ing. 



This is one of the common cutworms, feeding habitually upon 

 grass and upon a great variety of vegetables, but whose injuries to 

 cabbages have been hitherto unnoticed by economic entomologists, 

 as far as I am aware, except those done to the young plants by a 

 brood of the larvae preceding that which attacks the full-grown cab- 

 bage. Our observations on the injury noted have been confined to 

 the vicinity of Normal, with the exception of a single report from 

 Dr. E. R. Boardman, of Stark county, accompanied by specimens 

 of the cutworms which he found eating holes in the heads of his 

 cabbages and causing them to rot. He reported them in July of 

 the present year as quite common on his heads of cabbage and on 

 those of his neighbors. 



DESCBIPTION. 



The typical full-grown larva has the following characters : 

 It is 1.2 inches in length by 0.'2 inch in width at the widest part 

 of the body, and is much narrowed anteriorly, the first segment be- 

 ing less than half the width of those at the middle of the body. 

 Posteriorly, the diameter hardly lessens, so that the body is obliquely 

 truncate behind. 



