INSECTS AND THEIR REMEDIES. 107 



worm descends below the surface of the soil, but comes 

 up nightly for food, cutting tender plants. Eetiring 

 about sunrise, it sometimes draws a part of a leaf into its 

 burrow. Some distinct species ascend trees to cut the 

 buds, and are the climbing cut-worms. They are all most- 

 ly dark-colored, greasy, smooth-looking worms, mottled 

 with white, bearing a general resemblance to one another, 

 and when full grown are about an inch' and a half in 

 length. They curl up, when disturbed, and are torpid 

 in the cold of winter; but in our climate, with every 

 warm spell, they become lively, and hungry enough to 

 continue their depredations periodically throughout the 



Fig. 8. GREASY CUT-WORM (AgroHs telifera, Harr.). Fig. 9. LARVA. 



winter. They hibernate at the South in both the larva 

 and the pupa state. When full grown, the v/orm goes 

 deeper into the ground, and forms an oval chamber in 

 the soil, ,in which it goes into the pupa state. In the 

 warm weather of spring, the moth comes forth in from 

 two to three weeks afterwards. It is generally of a gray, 

 or brown color, with slight differences of darker markings 

 and colorings, on the front wings, and has a spread of 

 wings of about an inch and a half. When at rest, it sits 

 with the wings folded against the body, the lower being 

 covered and out of sight. 



In order to familiarize the eye with the appearance of 

 the parent moths, as well as that of the worms, engrav- 

 ings of several of the species are given. 



The Greasy cut-worm (fig. 8; larva, fig. 9), is very 



