StfRiACE CATERPILLAR^. l9l 



they curl up, not as a cockchafer grub does with the ventral surface 

 inwards, but to one side. 



These caterpillars are universal and some species are of almost world- 

 wide distribution. It is scarcely known how many species behave in this 

 way in India ; thoug-h several common species have been reared, it is exceed- 

 ingly difficult to determine accurately how much damage they do, and 

 in recent years only one species l seems to have been common or abundant. 



This is the so-called " Greasy Cut-Worm/' and its life history may be 

 taken as typical of the group. 



The moth lays a very large number of small white eggs singly, on 

 weeds or stones, in any convenient situation near the ground in waste 

 lands, in grass borders, near fields or in weedy fields. The caterpillars 

 feed on plants and live by day in hiding, coming out at night to feed. 

 When half grown they have a habit of biting through the base of the 

 plant, if it is a small one, thus cutting it off j the plant is then removed 

 to the burrow in the soil where the caterpillar finds shelter. Night after 

 night the caterpillar lives thus, until it becomes over an inch long, and is 

 large enough to destroy half -grown opium plants. Each caterpillar cuts 

 off more than it can eat and the destruction caused is very large. When 

 full grown the caterpillar makes a cell in the ground pupating there. The 

 moth emerges after a varying interval, and there is reason to believe that 

 though the caterpillar remains active through the winter in most parts 

 of the plants, the pupa hibernates in moderate cold. 



Surface caterpillars feed principally upon weeds, in waste lands or 

 unweeded fields. They are often abundant, not in the crops, but in weedy 

 places where there is good growth of low vegetation. They attack crops 

 principally after floods ; the exact explanation of this fact is not under- 

 stood, but it appears to be generally true that, when land has been 

 flooded, cut-worms are found on it in the ensuing rabi season, and that 

 after extensive floods, surface caterpillars are most abundant in fields and 

 gardens. The number of surface caterpillars may also be influenced by 

 the character of the season, damp weather being favourable to the emer- 

 gence of moths and consequent rapid breeding. Surface caterpillars are 

 found most abundantly on young rabi crops and throughout the cold 

 weather. They attack a great variety of crops, including opium, tobacco, 

 gram, peas, lucerne. 



Surface caterpillars are not generally distinguished from leaf^eatiiig 1 

 caterpillars which never live on the surface or from the sWar^ms of the 

 caterpillars which come in March, April and May* Yet these surface 



1 240. Agrotis ypMon. Eott. (Noetuldsc,) 



