THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



85 



not very encouraging. In addition to the enemies 

 enumerated by Mr. Walsh, (Prac. Ent., No. 1), 

 I on one oooasioii found an undesoribed species of 

 Braohelytra, kindly determined by Mr. Walsh to 

 be of the genus Fhilonthus, in one of my breeding 

 , boxes, which it entered during the night, and killed 

 all the contained larvaj. But from these insect en- 

 emies we cannot hope for much assistance, as they 

 can find plenty of more savory food in the freedom 

 of nature; even birds seem to avoid them, and in 

 all my breeding and entire summer of observations, 

 I did not find one ichneumon or other parasite en- 

 emy. Hand-picking is tedious, but is the most 

 practical method of disposing of them. The larva 

 is very tenacious of life. I have seen them living 

 after having been immersed in water for a whole 

 day. When their food is scarce, they will devour 

 the eggs and even prey on each other, (observed 

 in confinement). 



The potatoe rot was a great calamity, but this is 

 far worse; and while so many plant largely of 

 potatoes, and neglect entirely to pick off the insects, 

 we must anticipate that they will spread from field 

 to field, until the entire potatoe-raising portion of 

 the Union is filled with, if not overrun by them; 

 their subjugation though not impossible appears 

 very improbable. 



MoDNT Cabeoll, III., June 5, 1866. 



Br BEN.r. D. WALSH, M. A. 



By the term " Cutworm," is to be understood a 

 sixteen-footed worm or rather caterpillar, of a dingy 

 brownish color, often with indistinct stripes length- 

 ways of its body, and often with six or eight small 

 black humps or dots on each joint of its bod}', each 

 hump terminating very generally in a minute hair. 

 In the day-time they hide themselves under ground, 

 and in the night they wander forth, like a hungry 

 lion, seeking what to devour. "Wire-worms" and 

 "White Grubs'' are also called "cutworms" in 

 some parts of the country; but these have only six 

 legs, placed at the forward end of the body, and 

 they produce beetles, the Wire-worms changing into 

 "click-beetles'' (ehitei-), and the White Grub into 

 the May-bug or May-beetle. Whereas the true 

 Cutworms all produce moths, or "millers" as they 

 are popularly called, belonging, so far as is known 

 at present, to two distinct genera, Agrotis and Ua- 

 . dena. In Agrotis the male moth has feathered an- 

 tennae, the feathering, however, being quite short. 

 In Hadena the male moth has no feathering to its 

 antennae. Otherwise, with a few trifling exceptions, 

 the two genera are very much alike. In each ge- 

 nus there are numerous species known to exist in 

 the United States; 



Hence it is plain that it is as incorrect, or at all 

 events as indefinite, to talk of " the Cutworm" as I 

 formerly showed that it was to talk of "dAe Borer." 

 Just as there are many different kinds of "Borers," 

 each with its peculiar habits, so are there many dif- 

 ferent kinds of " Cutworms,'' each with its peculiar 

 habits; and we miist not be astonished if species 

 are from time to time discovered, that differ, in 



their mode of attacking our crops, from any that 

 had been previously known. 



Most cutworms attack annual plants, growing 

 either in the field or iu the garden, such as corn, 

 beans, tomatoes, lettuce, &c., cutting them off when 

 they are quite young, either a little above the sur- 

 face of the ground or a little below it. These seem 

 to belong, all of them, to the genus Agrotis, or at 

 least to be closely allied thereto, and they come out 

 into the moth state mostly in July and Angust. 



In Harris's Injurious Insects, p. 445, will be 

 found a figure of one species in the moth state (Af/- 

 rotis tessellata^ which seems closely allied to, if not 

 identical with another figured in Dr. Fitch's 

 Ninth N. Y. Report, Plate iv., figures 2 and 3, 

 and supposed by him to be the same as a species 

 found in Europe, (^Agrotis nigricans.) In Dr. 

 Fitch's 2d N. Y. Report there will also be found 

 figures of three other species in the moth state, 

 (subgothica, devastator and clandestina,) Plate iii, 

 figures 1, 2 and 6. 



The only species of the genus Hadena which is 

 known both iu the larva and perfect moth state is 

 the "Amputating Brocade Moth" (^Hadena, amputa- 

 trix) of Fitch, formerly called arnica. A figure of 

 this moth will be found in Harris's book, p. 450. 

 The habits of its larva differ very remarkably from 

 those of the ordinary cutworms. Instead of attack- 

 ing annual plants, it attacks shrubs, such as currant 

 and rose bushes, and even young trees, according 

 to Harris, cutting off and devouring the young 

 shoots in the night, and hiding itself under ground 

 during the day. The moth comes out about the 

 1st of July. I have myself bred another species 

 (^Hadena chennpodii') from a naked pupa dug up in 

 my garden (where I have many fruit-trees, currant 

 bushes, &c.) April 26th, the moth coming out May 

 24 ; I also bred a third species, the name of which 

 I do not know, from another naked pupa found by 

 myself under similar circumstances. Hence, and 

 from the fact that chenopodii, and another species 

 closely resembling it, swarm round lamps in houses 

 early in the summer in Rock Island, I infer that 

 the genus Hadena commonly infests gardens where 

 fruit-trees are grown, probably mounting the trees 

 in the night to feed on their foliage; and that the 

 different species, as a general rule, come out into 

 the moth state earlier in the summer than those 

 belonging to the genus Agrotis. 



Harris says, that "in the summer of 1851, an 

 agricultural newspaper contained an account of 

 certain naked caterpillars, that came out of the 

 ground in the night, and crawling up the trunks 

 of fruit-trees, devoured the leaves, and returned to 

 conceal themselves in the ground before morning." 

 {Inj. Ins. p. 450.) An article has recently ap- 

 peared in the Prairie Farmer, (June 2, 1866,) 

 from the pen of Mr. C. V. Riley, in which there is 

 an excellent account of the operations of certain 

 cutworms, which mount fruit-trees in a similar man- 

 ner in the month of May, and are especially hard 

 upon the fruit-buds. Three separate .species of 

 larvae, having these habits, are figured, and very 

 fully described by Mr. Riley, and they appear to 



