(Xj' Publication Office IVo. 45 JVortli Sixtli street. 



THE FARMERS' CABLNET, 



DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE AND RURAL ECONOMY. 



Vol. II.— No. 3.1 



Pliiladelpliia, August 15, 1837. 



[Whole No. 36. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



OBSERVER— NO. X. 



THE CUT WORM. 



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

 that the cut worm " is the offspring of the 

 phalcBiia destructor ; wings horizontal, white, 

 with small dark spots, under wings, orange." 

 The phalcBna thus described may, for aught I 

 know, produce a cut worm, but I am quite 

 certain that it does not produce the worm 

 commonly so called, in Pennsylvania. It is 

 quite probable that more than one species of 

 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 caterpillar. 



Several years ago, I confined a number of 

 cut worms in a box of earth, during their 

 transformations, and succeeded in obtaining 

 the moths, or phalasnas from them. Some or 

 my agricultural friends made similar experi- 

 ments. We all obtained the same result ; 

 but our phalesnaa 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 worm.s had 

 nearly acquired their growth, I placed a num- 

 ber of them in a glass jar, half filled with moist 

 earth, and loosely covered. They were fed 

 on the leaves of the common elder, (sambu- 

 cus canadensis,) of which they appear to be 

 immoderately fond.* During the day, they 

 lay concealed in the earth, and at night, fed 

 on the leaves. Some of the number died, 



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

 cut worms are numerous, to strew bunches of elder 

 leaves over their corn fields, and in the morning, go 

 round and destroy the worms which are found collected 

 under them in large numbers. 



Cab.— Vol. II.— No. 2. 17 



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 found that the pupse 

 were each enclosed in a ball or follicle of 

 clay. These follicles were composed of the 

 common earth, cemented 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 di- 

 ameter, 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 sur- 

 face, did not readily enter. 



Nearly all the phaleenae made their appear- 

 ance on the two first days of the present 

 month. 



The Linnasan genus phala;na, contains such 

 a numerous assemblage of insects, and withal, 

 so diversified, that subsequent entomologists 

 have divided, and subdivided it, into a great 

 number of genera. The number of the spe- 

 cies, and the near resemblance of many of 

 them, renders a distinct classification and de- 

 scription of them extremely difficult. Many 

 of the modern genera have their characters 

 drawn from the larvEe. Possessing little 

 knowledge of entomology, — not having ac- 

 cess to any description of my phalsena, (if 

 such exists,) and having neglected to pre- 

 serve a description of the worm, I cannot at- 

 tempt to determine its position in the systems, 

 or to give its specific characters. The fol- 

 lowing general description, taken from a 

 number of specimens now before me, will 

 give some idea of the insect. 



Pupa. — Length, about seven-tenths of an 

 inch ; smooth, shining, at first dirty white, or 

 yellowish, becoming brow n, or almost black — 



