Root Feeders Cutworms 



CHAPTER II 



ROOT FEEDERS 



Taken as a class, those insects which inhabit the soil and feed upon 

 the roots and other underground parts of plants are among the worst 

 enemies of field, orchard and garden crops. 



Living and feeding, as they do, below the surface of the ground the 

 greater part of their lives, the root feeders are seldom observed at work in 

 the field. 



The effect of injury by root feeders upon the leaves and other visible 

 'parts of plants is often attributed to many causes but the right one, and its 

 association with the insect is often not suspected until much damage has 

 been done, if at all. 



Their subterranean habits, together with ' he rapidity with which some 

 forms multiply, and the ease with which others are disseminated over 

 large areas, make them, with few exceptions, extremely difficult to 

 control. 



Furthermore, the study of the habits, life history and control of many 

 root feeders is attended by peculiar difficulties, because of which our knowl- 

 edge of them is often so meager that we are unable to apply effective means 

 of control when some insect of this class suddenly appears in damaging 

 numbers in our fields. 



Probably the best known and most destructive root feeders are the 

 cutworms, whi e grubs, wireworms, corn root-worms, the corn root-louse 

 and the sugar beet root-louse. To this may be added the sugar beet nema- 

 tode and other closely related eelworms. 



A. BITING ROOT FEEDERS 



(Cutworms, White Grubs, Wireworms) 



1. CUTWORMS 



The name "cutworm" is applied in a general way to all of the hair- 

 less larvae (caterpillars) of a group of moths or millers called "owlet 

 moths," from the fact that they fly mostly at night and have eyes that 

 shine in the dark. 



Probably no other insects are more dreaded in those sections where 

 they cause large annual crop losses, than are the various cutworms. 

 Like the evil gnomes of old, who sallied forth on moonless nights to 

 wreak vengeance upon some hapless wayfarer, the cutworms come forth 

 from hiding, and, under cover of darkness, despoil the farmers' crops; 

 or, like the "sappers" of an invading army, these invaders of our fields 

 tunnel from plant to plant, leaving a trail of death and destruction in 

 their wake. 



NATURE OF INJURY 



If, in walking through a beet field, dead and wilted plants are seen; if 

 stools of grain in grain fields are dying or the stand is becoming thin; or 



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