80 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO STAPLE CROPS. 



grown caterpillars; but in tlie South there may be as many 

 as six broods, and the moths often hibernate over winter, 

 laying eggs early in the sjiring. In the Northern States 

 these young worms mature, change to puj)a3, and from 

 them the adult moths appear early hi June, the May 

 broods rarely doing serious injury. The female moths 

 now lay their small yellowish eggs in rows of from ten to 



Fig. 50 — Army-worm Moth (Leueanin unipunctd), pupa, and eggs 

 in natural position in a grass- leaf. Natural size. (After 

 Comstock.) 



fifty, inserting them in the unfolded bases of the grass- 

 leaves, and covering them with a thin layer of glue. Over 

 seven hundred may be deposited by one female, and thus 

 it is that the myriads of young worms appear when they 

 hatch in about ten days, and form the destructive army 

 of early July. The worms usually feed entirely at night, 

 and thus whole fields will often be ruined before they are 

 discovered, though a few generally feed during the day, 

 as they all do during cloudy weather. The leaves and 

 stalks of the grains and grasses form their favorite food, 

 the heads usually being cut off, l)ut various garden crops 

 have frequeutly been seriously injured. As a rule clover 



