130 INJURIOUS INSECTS 



THE NORTHERN ARMY WORM. 

 (Leucania unipuncta, Haw.) 



This insect has from time to time made its appearance 

 in destructive numbers. Its earliest recorded appearance 

 in the Eastern States, was in 1743. The years 1770, 

 1817, and 1861, are those in which it is reported to have 

 been especially troublesome in the East; in 1861 it was 

 destructive from New England to Kansas; in 1875, it 

 visited a large part of Missouri, and in 1880 was especially 

 destructive on Long Island. Prof. C. V. Eiley was the 

 first to give the full history of this insect, in his Eeports 

 on the Insects of Missouri, and in the Walker Prize 

 Essay of the Boston Natural History Society, for 1877; 

 from these the following is condensed. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE INSECT. 



The worm when full grown is dingy black in color, 

 striped as in figure 87, with a broad dusky stripe along 

 the back, divided along the middle by a more or less dis- 

 tinct and irregular pale line, and bordered beneath by a 

 narrow black line; then a narrow white line; then a yel- 

 lowish stripe; then a narrow, indistinct white line; then 

 another dusky stripe; again a narrow white line; then a 

 yellow stripe, and, finally, again a faint white line: the 

 underside or venter is obscure green. 



The chrysalis (fig. 88) is mahogany-brown in color. 

 The moth (fig. 89) is of a fawn color, with a white speck 

 near the center of the front wings and a dusky, oblique 

 line running inwardly from their tips. 



The eggs are laid in the spring of the year so far as we 

 know, and not in the fall as was formerly supposed. 

 They are thrust, by means of an ovipositor, which is 

 admirably adapted for this purpose, in between the folded 



