CUT-WOEMS. 



11 



Fig. 14.— Hadena devastates . 



herilis, A* messoria, A. saucia, A. tessellata, A. ypsilon, Hadena 

 arctica, H. devastatrix, Laphygma frugiperda, and Nephelod.es 

 violans. [Of these, Agrotis clandestina and Hadena devastatrix, 



two of the most 



common of 



the Cut-worm 



moths, and the 



most destruc- 

 tive to corn, are 



shown in Figs. 

 Fig. 13.— Agrotis clandestina. J g and 14.1 



Wheat — Wheat is often injured to a serious extent by a species 

 for a long time only known to us as a dingy-brown larva, with a 

 conspicuous yellowish-gray band upon its sides. In several 

 localities its attack had only been observed in instances where the 

 wheat had been sown upon oat stubble {American Entomologist, 

 i, 1868, p. 59). The larva was subsequently ascertained by breed- 

 ing it, to be that of Laphygma frugiperda. Professor Riley had 

 described it as the Wheat Cut-worm, in his first Missouri report. 

 At the present time it is more generally known as the Army 

 Cut-worm, from the abundance in which it at times occurs. For 

 representation of the moth, see page 20, Fig. 23. 



The European wheat fields often suffer enormously from two 

 species, viz.: Agrotis tritici, the wheat dart-moth, and Agrotis 

 segetum, the common dart-moth, which feed upon both the roots 

 and leaves of winter wheat. 



Barley. — A cut-worm, identified as Agrotis declarata Walker, 

 caused considerable injury to barley fields (to oats also), in Manitoba, 

 during the month of July of the year 1884. (Saunders, Canad. 

 Entomol., xvi, 1884, p. 206.) It is described as grayish-brown, 

 with a semi-transparent skin, a brown horny head, and a shield 

 of the same character on the upper part of the second segment ; 

 a pale line down the back, two similar lines along each side, and 

 a white band lower down, close to the under surface. 



Cabbage. — In a garden in Normal, 111., containing 600 young 

 plants, not over thirty escaped. The larvse came out of the 

 ground (in the middle of April), and cut off the plants at or 

 near the surface, and then ate the leaves. The owner killed about 

 200 of the worms on the first day of their appearance, and 500 or 

 more on the day following, after which the plot was reset with 



