﻿54 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT 



green, with a brown head; then striped, with five pale and six darker 

 lines, and after going through five and sometimes six molts, the worm 

 assumes the appearance of Fig. 14, «, a. When full grown, the best 

 marked specimens are prettily striped with sulphur-yellow and straw- 

 yellow, and with light and dark brown, as follows : A broad, dark 

 brown line along the back, divided along the middle by a fine white 

 line generally obsolete behind; beneath this broad line, on each side, 

 a straw-yellow line, half as wide ; then a light brown one of the same 

 width as the last, and becoming yellow on the lower edge; then a 

 narrower dark brown one, containing the white spiracles; then a 

 sulphur-yellow as wide as the third ; then a less distinct light brown 

 subventral one, the venter being pale yellow. The head is large, 

 straw-colored, and with two attenuating brown marks from the top to 

 the lower face. 



This worm when newly hatched is, therefore, at once distinguished 

 from unipuncta or the true Army Worm, by its black head; later by 

 having superiorly five instead of seven pale lines, and six instead of 

 eight dark ones, and when full grown, by its brighter, more strongly 

 contrasting colors, and paler head. 



The habit of feeding on the grain becomes pronounced only after 

 the worms are half grown, and prior to that time they feed on the 

 leaves, and are seldom noticed. 



The chrysalis is naturally formed just beneath the surface of the 

 ground, but frequently under weeds and other rubbish. It is of the 

 ordinary mahogany-brown color, terminates in a stout horny point, 

 with a corrugated base, and is at once distinguished from unipuncta 

 by the stigmata being raised on a rounded prominence, and by other 

 particulars mentioned in the description at close. 



The worms acquire their full growth in from three to four weeks 

 from hatching, those of the second brood developing somewhat more 

 slowly than those of the first. The chrysalis state in the Summer 

 brood lasts from ten to fifteen days. The parent moth (Fig. 15) has 

 the front wings pale, straw-colored, with a white line running along 

 the middle to the outer third, and shaded with brown and purplish- 

 brown as follows : A shade beneath the white line, intensified at each 

 end where it joins the white; another along the posterior border, 

 narrow at apex and broadening to the middle, where it projects along 

 the middle of the wing above the white line, fading away toward base, 

 and a fainter shade along the front or costal edge, intensifying toward 

 apex. 



NATURAL ENEMIES. 



The worm is subject to the attacks of three distinct parasites. 

 One, the very same species of Tachina-fly ( T. anonyma) which I have 



