440 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 7 



nieiision?, are either lying in a ruinoug slate, or 

 their reparation has cost nearly as much as the first 

 formation: but it is not my intention to criticise, but 

 rather endeavor to put hniileil prc)[)rietors on their 

 guard airainst entering into an improvement of 

 this nature, until every circumstance be properly 

 weighed. 



From the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 THE CUT WORM. 



A writer in the Cabinet, vol. 1, p. 6, says that 

 the cut worm " is the o'lspring ofthep/taZffi«a des- 

 tnicior; wings horizontal, white, with small dark 

 spots, under wings, orange." The phalana thus 

 described may, tor auglit I know, produce a cut 

 worm, but I am quite certain that it does not pro- 

 duce the worm commonly so called, in Pennsylva- 

 nia. It is quite probable that more than one spe- 

 cies of the worm may cut corn, and thence, acquire 

 the name of" cut worm. This is a point worthy of 

 accurate investigation. I am acquainted with the 

 insect described by " Senex," but not with its cater- 

 pillar. 



Several years ago, I confined a number of cut 

 worms in a box of earth, during their transforma- 

 tions, and succeeded in obtaining tiie moths, or 

 phalfenfe from them. Some of my agricultural 

 iriends made similar experiments. \V"eall obtain- 

 ed the same result; hut our phaltenns were totally 

 different from that of "Senex." I determined to 

 repeat the experiment the present year. About 

 the end of the fifth month, when the cut worms had 

 nearly acquired their growth, I placed a number of 

 them in a glass jar half filled with moist earth, 

 and loosely covered. They were fed on the leaves 

 of the common elder, fsambucus canadensis,) of 

 •which they appear to be immoderately fond.* 

 During the day, they lay concealed in the earth, 

 and at night feed on the leaves. Some of the num- 

 ber died, but the larger part completed their larva 

 state, and entered the earth to undergo their first 

 metamorphosis. I examined the earth in the jar 

 some days after, and fiund that the pupfc were 

 each enclosed in a ball or follicle of clay. These 

 follicles were composed of the common earth, ce- 

 mented together by some adhesive fluid which the 

 worm had furnished for the purpose. They were 

 of a roundish oval figure— near an inch in their 

 longer diameter, and smooth on the inner surface. 

 The walls were about an eighth of an inch thick, 

 and loosely connected with the exterior earth. 

 They were somewhat impervious to water, as on 

 trial, a drop placed on the surface, did not readily 

 enter. 



Nearly all the phalfenn? made their appearance 

 on the two first days of the present (7th) month. 

 The Linna^an genus phala^na, contains such a 

 numerous assemblage of insects, and withal, so di- 

 versified, that subsequent entomologists have divi- 

 ded, and subdivided it, into a great number of ge- 

 nera. The number of the species, and the near 

 resemblance of many of them, renders a distinct 

 classification and description of them extremely 

 difficult. Many of the modern genera have their 

 •characters drawn from the larvae. Possessino* lit- 



* Hence, it is the practice of some farmers, when 

 the cut worms are numerous, to strew bunches of elder 

 kaves over their corn fields, and in the mornini^, ^o 

 round and destroy the worms which are found coiiected 

 under them in large numbers. 



tie knowledge of entomology — not having accesss 

 to any description of my phatena, (if such exists,) 

 and having neglected to preserve a description of 

 the worm, I cannot attempt to determine its posi- 

 tion in the systems, or to give its specific charac- 

 ters. The following general description, taken 

 from a number of specimens now before me, will 

 give some idea of the insect. 



Pupa. — Ijength, about seven-tenths of an inch; 

 smooth, shining, at fist dirty white, or yellowish, 

 becoming brown, or almost black — rudiments of 

 the wings strongly defined — abdomen tapering, 

 abruf)tly terminating in a short, bristle-like point; 

 annuli or rings distinct, and quite movable — spira- 

 cles, or breathing holes, on tiie sides of" the rings, 

 projecting in Ibrm of short flattened tubes. Dura- 

 lion of the pupa state, about three weeks. 



Perfect Slate. — Color, variable shades of black- 

 ish gray — length, three-fourths of an inch — body 

 stout — movements sudden and rapid — habits, noc- 

 turnal, jlnicnnoi, long, setaceous «r bristle-shaped, 

 eyes, lateral, large, black: palpi, projecting for- 

 wards, hairy, last joint very small, scaly; fovtgite, 

 very long, horny, spirally rolled up beneath the 

 head; thorax, tulted with long hairs, marketl ante- 

 riorly with a transverse, wavy, black line; wings, 

 horizontal, incumbent, the superior ones overlap- 

 ping, ciliate or fringed behind, with long scaly hairs, 

 andi ornamented above with faint lines, and spots 

 of different shades of gray and brown; infericjr 

 ones lighter colored, the inner margins folded and 

 fringed wit!i long whitish hairs; thighs, covered 

 with long hairs; legs, hairy above, sjiinosi, ciliate 

 on the posterior edges, the hind ones, with a pair 

 of long spines near the middle 'jfeet, with two sim- 

 ilar spines at the first joint; spines, white, with a 

 black ring in the middle; articulations of the feet 

 white. 



Supposed female — upper wings, silvery gray, 

 with the lines and spois similar, but less distinct 

 than in the male. 



Habits. — I am not aware that the manner in 

 which the cut worm phakena deposites its eggs, 

 has ever been observed. I can, therefore, only ar- 

 rive at probable conclusions. As a very lew pha- 

 IcBUtP survive the winter season, it is probable that 

 the eggs are deposited in autumn, among the 

 grass, at or near to the surface of the ground. 

 The eggs appear not to hatch until spring. 



The correctness of this view, is inferred from 

 the success of fall or very early spring ploughing, 

 in preventing the ravages of the cut worm. It 

 may be proper to inquire a little, how winter 

 ploughing produces this result. I apprehend that 

 the eggs become buried so deep in the earth, that 

 the vivifying influence of the sun and air does not 

 reach them, or if they do hatch at such a depth, 

 they must perish before reaching the surface, 

 where alone food is to be found to nourish them. 

 In late spring ploughing, the same thing would 

 not so certain!}' happen; vegetation having start- 

 ed, the proper Ibod lor the worms would be buried 

 alotig with them, and the loose state of fi-esh 

 ploughed land not only admits the fi-ee passage of 

 warmth and air, but would greatly facilitate the 

 egress of the worm to the surface. Even should 

 the moth survive the winter, and not deposite its 

 eggs till spring, the foregoing explanation will ap- 

 ply equally well; or if the moths should find the 

 ground sdready ploughed, they would probably 

 seek some other feeld in which to depoeite their 



