NEW MEXICO EAXGE CATERPILLAR AND ITS CONTROL. 



5 



111 cultirated crops the caterpillars devour the leaves and, in rare 

 instances, the upper and tender portions of the stem. 



The caterpillare are very greedy and wasteful feeders, often eating 

 onlv a small part of each plant destroyed. Frequently they will 

 bite thi'ough a plant stem several mches below its top and then eat 

 from tills point do"svn to the junction of stem and roots, leaving the 

 upper part of the plant as waste. They are equipped with large, 

 powerful jaws and eat a tremendous amount of plant matter each 



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I'lc;. J. — iJiagram illiislratin:; li.« cyck- of t he New Mexico range caterpillar. (Original.) 



day. ^^uch of this food is not fully digestfvl, but passes through tlio 



caterpillar and is voided in an a[)parently slightly (^lianged condition. 



Oftentimes it appears that the caterpillars eat from habit rather than 



necessity. 



inji;ry caused by poisoning uneaten plants. 



Wlicn partly grown the range caterpillars develop poisonous spines, 

 probaljly as a protection against birds or inse(;t-eating mammals. In 

 crawling from plac(! t(j ])lac(^, or (hiring tlie j)rocess of molting, tlieso 

 spines (see fig. \) bceoinc scatt(u-ed ilirougli the imcntcii ])]iints. 



