302 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



cabbage, onions, and alfalfa, as well as pigweed (Chenopodium 

 album) and careless weed (Amaranthus) and will probably feed 

 on many other crops. It is a native of western and central 

 Europe, and northern Asia, and was evidently introduced on the 

 Pacific Coast, as it was noted in Utah in 1869. 



The moth is larger than the garden webworm, having a wing 

 expanse of an inch, and is a purplish-brown color with darker 

 and paler bands as shown in Fig. 255. The full-grown larva is 

 about an inch long, of a dark color with a white stripe down the 

 back and one along either side, and marked with numerous 

 black and white tubercles as illustrated. 



Life History. The larvae hibernate over winter an inch or 

 two below the surface of the soil in long silken tubes. In spring 

 they pupate in these tubes and the moths emerge about the middle 

 of May. The eggs are laid on the foliage either singly or in clus- 

 ters of from three to ten, one overlapping another. The egg 

 is broadly oval, one twenty-fifth inch long, and of a pale green 

 color. The first generation of caterpillars feed on pigweed 

 and alfalfa in Colorado during June. A second generation of 

 larvae occurs about the middle of July and sometimes injures 

 beets, but the third generation about the middle of August is 

 the one most injurious in Colorado. Most of these larvae hibernate 

 over winter, but there is a partial fourth generation in Colorado. 

 The larvae defoliate the plants, and cover them with a web the 

 same as the native garden webworm, with which the life history 

 seems to be practically identical. 



Control. The same means of control as for the garden web- 

 worm are advised. 



The Beet Army Worm * 



" This caterpillar, which replaces the fall army worm (L. 

 frugiperda see Chapter VII) in the Western States, differs from 

 it by its more decidedly mottled ground-color, by a row of white 

 dots at the lower margin of the lateral dark band, and by the 

 yellower color of the light stripes. It is an interesting fact that 

 while the preceding species was doing serious, unusual, and widely 

 extended injury in the Eastern and Southern States (1899,) 

 the present one was similarly abundant in Colorado, where, 



* Laphygma exigua Hubn. Family Noctuidce. 



