GENERAL CROP PESTS 



59 



and wild grasses, since experience shows that these are the 

 favorite breeding grounds of the insect ; when the larvae hatch- 

 ing from these eggs have devoured the grain and grasses they 

 are driven to cultivated fields for food. 



Fall plowing and disking should always be practiced where 

 circumstances will permit. 



The Army Worm (Hcliophila [Lcucaiiia] nnipimcta Haw.). — 

 The true army worm is so well known as a grain and grass 

 pest that a short account only need be given, more particularly 

 since it seldom injures vegetables other than corn. Its general 

 economy closely resembles that of the fall army 

 worm, previously treated. The army worm proper 

 (fig. 31) is larger, a little stouter, more distinctly 

 striped and much smoother than the fall army 

 worm, measuring about an inch and a fourth in 

 length. The parent army worm is a pale yellow- 

 ish brown moth with a white spot near the center 

 of each fore-wing. This insect appears much 

 earlier in the year than the fall species. From 

 May to July it accomplishes its greatest injury; 

 and although nocturnal by nature, when conditions 

 favor its increase it soon exhausts its food supply, 

 crowds then gather and march in armies — the 

 habit from which it has received its name — in the 

 heat of the day as well as at night 



-,.. . Fig. 31.— Army 



Wmter is ^^^^_ ^bout 



passed usually in the partially grown caterpillar one-third en- 



... , T • -larged. 



State m the same manner as with cutworms, injury 



may be accomplished by any generation, but is most often due to 



the second brood. 



Remedies are practically the same as advised for the fall 

 army worm. 



