THE BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 107 



feed upon the leaves, forming gradually the protective 

 nest that remains upon the trees through the winter. The 

 caterpillars remain inside the webbed leaves, and thus 

 wait until the following spring. 



An effective remedy for this insect is that of burning 

 the winter nests. In localities where it is not yet found, a 

 constant watch should be kept for it, and any suspicious- 

 looking nests should be sent to the State Experiment 

 Station for examination. 



OWLET MOTHS 



Another important family of the Lepidoptera is that of 

 the Owlet Moths, or the Night-flying Moths (Noctuidae). 

 These are comparatively small moths, having thick bodies, 

 slender antennas, rather small wings, and for the most 

 part inconspicuous colors. The larvae are generally 

 smooth-bodied worms, that commonly transform into pupae 

 in earthen cells. This group includes a large number of 

 very destructive insects, of which the Army Worm and the 

 Cutworms are good examples. 



For more than a hundred years, the Army Worm has 

 been destructive to American crops. It is one of those 

 insects which appear at irregular intervals in enormous 

 numbers, and then suddenly disappear .for many years. 

 Briefly told, the story of the life of the individual Army 

 Worm is this : 



On some summer night there appears flying about a 

 meadow, a rather large, light-brown moth. She finds a 

 cluster of grass blades. Into the folded leaves of one or 

 more of these, she pushes a number of small, whitish 

 eggs, grouping them in rows of a dozen or more. A week 

 or ten days later, each egg hatches into a minute whitish 

 worm, that nibbles at the grass blades at night, and during 



