t 7'5 ] 

 CHAPTER CXVIII. 



CUT WORMS (NOCTUIDS). 



^PHE Noctuid larvae known as kdtree pokd, kdjrd, kumwah, 

 ledd-pokd, or chord-pokd, remain hidden in the earth in 

 day time and the moths fly only at night, or in the dusk. 

 Some species venture out in day time, cut tender pieces of 

 stems and take them down into their burrows for consump- 

 tion, or remain hidden in leaves and stems on a bright day. 

 They attack young plants of rice, wheat, poppy, khesari^ 

 cabbage, turnip, mustard, linseed, tomato, tobacco, cotton, 

 indigo, and potatoes, and perhaps other plants, and they 

 destroy far more seedlings than they can possibly consume. 

 Potato and poppy plants remain subject to the attack of the 

 pest to the last, as their stems are always very tender and 

 the damage done to these crops by cut worms is often very 

 considerable. The pupal stage is passed altogether under 

 ground, and thorough preparation for a long period seems 

 therefore to be the best preventive. From November to 

 February, when the moths are to be commonly seen in the 

 evening, the eggs are laid on leaves in small batches, often 

 two or three layers deep and then lightly covered with the 

 down of the parent moth's abdomen. Probably there is a 

 second generation in the rainy season. The larvae are more 

 active when they first come out, progressing like geometrite 

 caterpillars, but soon become fat and in appearance some- 

 what like stumpy silkworms. It is at this stage of its life 

 that the insect is most voracious and wantonly destruc- 

 tive. Each caterpillar has been known to cut down 50 to 

 100 plants of potatoes and poppy in one night. The pupa- 

 tion goes on in the soil 3 to 8 inches under the surface, and the 

 moth emerges in about a month. Kerosine emulsion syringed 

 under each plant was tried successfully some years ago in the 

 jail garden of Khulna against Agrotis suffusa. At the jail 



