194 maine -tate college 



Greasy or Black Cut-wokm. 

 Fj silon (Eott.) 

 (Orel. Lepidoptera : Fam. Noctuidae.) 

 Eggs — pale fulvous ; nearly spherical, base somewhat flattened ; 

 laid in small patches, often of two or three layers and sparsely 

 covered with long scales from the abdomen of the female moth. 

 Larvce when full grown about an inch and a half long, dull lead 

 brown color with five longitudinal paler stripes ; under side of 

 body pale greenish yellow. 



The Moth, Fig. 7, has dark fore wings with a bluish tinge on 



the front border and with a dark 

 brown lance- shaped mark running 

 from the posterior portion of a kid- 

 ney-shaped spot in the middle of the 

 wing. Hind wings pearly white and 

 semi-transparent. 



This species is world-wide in its 

 occurrence and does great damage to 

 Fi ^- "• garden and field crops. It has been 



found destroying cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, tobacco, cotton, 

 corn and beans. In confinement it will feed upon apple and grape 

 leaves. There are two broods and the moths are on the wing 

 from April to October. Those we reared emerged the last of 

 August. It was found by Mr. Sleeper cutting corn, but more 

 abundantly by Lim in potatoes. We bred the moths from worms 

 taken in corn bills, but did not notice their work in potatoes 

 near by. 



Remedies. 

 The remedies may be divided into natural and artificial. Nat- 

 ural remedies are those provided by nature to hold insects in check 

 and prevent tbeir undue increase. Under this head would come 

 parasites, like Ichneumons and Tachina flies, that lay their eggs 

 in the worms and destroy them; predaceoiis insects, as various 

 species of beetles, hemiptera, mites and spiders ; birds, as the 

 robin, catbird, blackbirds and poultry ; and quadrupeds, as the 

 skunk and probably moles, all of which eat them. 



-1 iificiai remedies are those devised by man to protect his 

 crops, or destroy the insects feeding upon them. They may be 

 divided into preventive and destrudi 



Preventive are those that protect the plants from attack, but do 



