106 T RUCK-FA RMIKG AT THE SOUTH. 



The cabbage insect, for instance, from being a worm, 

 crawling slowly about upon sixteen short feet, and greed- 

 ily devouring, with two strong jaws, about twice its own 

 weight of cabbage leaf daily, and seeing out of twelve mi- 

 nute, nearly invisible eyes, transforms itself, first into a 

 motionless, sightless chrysalis, and then into a flitting 

 butterfly, with six long, wholly dissimilar legs, ten hav- 

 ing completely disappeared. Instead of the twelve in- 

 visible eyes, it is now provided with two prominent ones, 

 each composed of about seventeen thousand convex 

 lenses, every one supposed to be a separate eye. Instead 

 of the two strong jaws, we see a long, flexible proboscis 

 for the extraction of the nectar of flowers, now its only 

 food. The shape of its head is completely changed, and 

 from it project two horns, which are the organs of touch. 



The insects that infest particular vegetables will be 

 mentioned further on, in treating of their special food 

 plants. 



Of omnivorous insects, or general feeders, those which 

 first claim our attention, on account of their general de- 

 structiveness, are: 



THE CUT-WORMS. 



These are the larvae of several genera of night-flying 

 owlet or rustic moths (Noctuidw}, the genus Agrotis 

 furnishing the most numerous species, while those of 

 Mamestra, Hadena, and Celcena are more rare. 



Prof. C. V. Eiley has made a special study of cut- 

 worms, and has described, in his First Missouri Report, 

 the habits of twelve distinct species, and subsequently 

 of several others. 



Ordinarily, the moth attaches her eggs in early spring 

 and late summer to vegetation near the ground; but 

 sometimes the eggs are laid on the leaves of trees, upon 

 which the worms do not feed, but from which they de- 

 scend as soon as born. Soon after it is hatched, the young 



