﻿OP THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 45 



will explain more of the known facts in the insect's economy than 



any other. 



From the foregoing considerations I think we may safely conclude 



that — taking our whole country with its varied climate — there is no 

 one state in which the Army Worm can be said to solely pass the win- 

 ter ; that according to latitude and the character of the seasons, there 

 is nothing to preclude its hibernating in any one of the four states in 

 which it exists ; that in the same latitude and under the same condi- 

 tions it will even hibernate in different states ; and that, finally, the 

 great bulk of them hibernate in the pupa and moth states, the pro- 

 portion of the former increasing northward. 



HABITS OF THE WORM. 



The fact caunot be too strongly impressed on the mind, that the 

 traveling of the worms in large armies is abnormal. During the latter 

 part of April and throughout the month of May, in this part of the 

 country, the worms may almost always be found by diligent search in 

 moist grass land that was not cut or grazed too closely the previous 

 Autumn. At these times they have essentially the habits of ordinary 

 cut-worms, and are seldom noticed unless so abundant as to cut the 

 grass entirely down and be obliged to travel to fresh pastures. In- 

 deed, one may pass daily through a grass plot where they abound, and 

 never suspect their presence until the plot suddenly begins to look 

 bare in patches ; and Prof. Thomas tells me that though he was par- 

 ticularly looking for the worms last June, he never suspected their 

 presence in a constantly frequented grass plot behind his house, until 

 it was made manifest in this way, by which time the worms had mostly 

 disappeared, the abundance of their excrement, however, showing 

 well enough that they had been there. 



The reasons why they so easily escape detection in this their 

 normal condition, were made very obvious to me in the early part of 

 May, 1872, when I had an excellent opportunity of studying them. 

 When less than half an inch long, the worms are scarcely recogniza- 

 ble as Army Worms, the characteristic dark, sinuous lines on the head 

 being at this time obsolete and the general color being pale green. 

 The color is very variable at any stage of growth, and in some individ- 

 uals the brown predominates while they are yet quite small; but up 

 to the last molt the green generally prevails and the longitudinal 

 dark lines are lass conspicuous. The broad stigmatal line is the most 

 persistent, being distinguished when the insect is l inch long. The 

 worms in this their normal condition feed mostly at night and hide 

 during the day at the base of the grass or under any other shelter at 

 hand. If they venture to mount a plant and feed during the day — 

 which they often do in cloudy weather — they drop at the least dis- 



