31 



medio-dorsal rounded spots. The different stages are shown in figure 

 25. During the severe outbreak of this species in 1900, already men- 

 tioned, practical}}' all forms of vegetables, including sugar and table 

 beets, were attacked, the insect even 

 eating into roots and tubers and 

 devouring the foliage and gnawing 

 the bark of trees. 



A detailed account of this species 

 is furnished in Bulletin 20, new se- 

 ries, Division of Entomology. 



THE GREASY CUTWORM. 



Fig. 26. — Agrotis ypsilon, a beet cutworm: a, 

 larva; h, head of same; c, adult, — somewhat 

 enlarged (fom Howard, Division of Entomol- 



{Aijrutls j/psilon Kott. ) 



This species is commonly found 

 in fields of beets, and may be se- 

 lected as typical of its class. In 

 irajjortance as a pest it is perhaps 

 second only to the variegated cut- "^^'' 



worm. It is of about the same size (fig. 26), and of a dull, dirt}' lirown 

 color, characteristic of most cutworms, with the lower portion paler 

 and greenish, and the entire surface of a greasy appearance, whence 

 the name. It is cosmopolitan, and has a most emphatic and pernicious 



cutting habit. It is especially 

 troublesome to newly set tomato 

 plants, to potato, corn, lettuce, 

 and tobacco. 



THE SPOTTED CUTWORM. 



[Xoctud c-nigrum Linn.) 



This is one of our commonest 

 and most destructive species, 

 and is commonly found on beets. 

 It resembles the variegated cut- 

 worm in being cosmopolitan, 

 nearly omnivorous, a climbing 

 species, and in migrating in 

 The moth (fig. 27, a) has brown fore- 



Fig. 27. — Noctua c-nigrum: a, moth; h, larva — some- 

 what enlarged (author's illustration, Division of 

 Entomology) . 



numbers like the army worms 

 wings, tinged with red or purplish and marked with lighter colors 

 as figured. The cutworm (/>) is pale brown or gray, sometimes whit- 

 ish with greenish or olive tints, and has the last segments marked 

 with oblique black lines. It measures, fully extended, about an inch 

 and a half. The principal crops which it has been known to injure 

 include, besides beets, corn, and other cereals, cabbage, cauliflower, 

 turnip, pea, carrot, tomato, celery, rhubarb, currant, gooseberry, 



