216 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO STAPLE CROPS. 



with lighter hind wings, as shown in the ilhistration — 

 natural size. Like the cutworms, they feed at night, 

 sipping the nectar from flowers, and the family to which 

 they belong has therefore been named the Noduidce. As 

 a rule there is but a single brood of worms in a season, 

 thouofh a second one is not unusual. The female moths 

 lay the eggs on stones, leaves, trees, etc., almost any place 

 where the ground is well covered with vegetation, so that 

 the young worms can readily find food. They are usually 

 deposited during midsummer and the larvae become par- 

 tially grown before winter, when they hollow out an oval 

 cell in the earth, curl up, and hibernate till spring, seem- 

 ingly unaifected by freezing. The next spring, after their 

 long fast, the young vegetation is eaten with surprising 

 voracitv. When full-OTown a cutAvorm is of a dull 

 brown, gray, or greenish hue, generally marked with 

 longitudinal stripes, oblique dashes and dots, and is from 

 one and one-fourth to two inches long. The head and 

 segment back of it are reddish brown and horny. There 

 are eight pairs of legs; the first three jointed and tapering, 

 the last five short and stout. As soon as full-grown the 

 worm enters the earth to pupate, and from the pupa 

 transforms to the adult moth from late July to early 

 August. Though besides the larvae all the other stages are 

 known to sometimes hibernate over winter, nevertheless 

 the life-cycle is usually so that the worms are hungry for 

 the young spring plants, and though numerous during the 

 whole season, it is during the spring that their devastation 

 is worst and most noticed. 



Bemedies. — From the habits above outlined it may be 

 seen that much can be done to exterminate these pests by 

 a thorough cultivation of the land to be planted, during 



