Cut-Worms. 



15 



been turned up in the ground about the plants. So far as we 

 know, but one of the species has been identified. It was found 

 by Mr. Bennett, at Newton, N. J., feeding destructively on his 

 vines and those of his neighbors. Sent to the Division of Ento- 

 mology at Washington, it was ascertained to be Agrotis malefida 

 Guen. — a species which is of more common occurrence in the 

 Southern States than to the northward. In this instance, its 

 injuries were arrested by dusting the vines with a powder made of 

 gas-tar and lime. (Bull. No. 11. Divis. of Entomol. — U. S. Dept. 

 Agricul., 1886, p. 31.) 



This cut-worm has also been found to be injurious to cabbage, 

 and to a number of other plants. It is illustrated in Fig. 19. 



Tobacco. — Young tobacco plants are often cut off in the month of 

 June. Ip. West Meriden, Conn., three 

 thousand plants were set on June 22d. 

 The next morning, from one row of one 

 hundred and eighty plants two hundred 

 and fourteen cut-worms were taken. 

 Dr. Fitch records the fact of their par- 

 ticular fondness for this plant. He 

 states : " I set out in my garden a few 

 tobacco plants that I might notice what 

 insects would come upon this filthy 

 weed ; and within a few days after, one 

 of these cut-worms gave me a very pal- 

 pable reminder that he would not tax Pl *?- 2o.-agkotis ypsilon: a, 



p , , -. , .(.t it larva ; b, enlarged head of same ; 



me lor cabbages and beans n 1 would Ci tlie m oth. 

 only furnish him with what tobacco he wanted to chew " (Sixth- 

 Ninth Reports Ins. N. Y., 1865, p. 243). 



Figure 20 shows " the Black Cut- worm," and the moth that it pro- 

 duces, Agrotis ypsilon (Rott.), which is one of the species from the 

 attack of which tobacco plants are known to have received severe 

 damage. 



Glover. — In the Ottawa district of Ontario, during the month of 

 May, 1884, a cut-worm was discovered in large numbers and prov- 

 ing very injurious in clover fields. It was at first believed to be 

 the army-worm, but upon rearing some of them to the perfect 

 state, they proved to be Agrotis fennica (Tausch.) (Saunders, Canad. 

 Entomol., xvi, p. 204). Agrotis malefida Guen., also feeds on clover 

 (Riley in Bept. to Gomm. Agricul. for 1884, p. 292). 



