CUT-WOEMS. 17 



were found by Mrs. Mary Treat very attractive to cut-worms. 

 " Untold numbers " were discovered feeding upon them when 

 examined with a light in the evening, and upon ti.rning over some 

 of the ground beneath them, in one search over a pint of the worms 

 were taken, from just beneath the surface (Proc. N. J. St. Horticul. 

 Soc, at 8th Meeting, 1883, pp. 88-9). 



Among other garden and field crops which are liable to cut- 

 worm attack, are peas, beets, potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, melons, 



and squashes. 



Abundance of Cut-wokms. 



As with other insects, these have their years of unusual abun- 

 dance, for which we are not able to assign a satisfactory cause. 

 Sometimes a single species only has multiplied, and one that had 

 never before been known as injurious, as with the Bronze-colored 

 Cut-worm, Nephelodes vidians, in Northern New York, in the spring 

 of 1881, and with the recent phenomenal appearance of the hitherto 

 rare Agrotis fennica, in Northern Michigan and in Canada, in 1884. 

 At other times all of the well-known species make their appearance 

 in such force that it is next to impossible to interpose effectual 

 resistance against their onslaught. 



A few instances of their occasional abundance may be cited : 



More than thirty cut- worms have been found around one hill of 

 cucumbers. 



In Sullivan county, Tenn., as many as sixty have been dug from 

 a single hill of corn {Report Commis. Agricul. for 1872, p. 122). 



" Bushels," are reported as having been taken from a large onion 

 field. 



Dr. Harris copies the statement without questioning it, although 

 seeming almost incredible, that sixty bushels of mold taken from a 

 buckwheat field where Agrotis tritici prevailed, contained twenty- 

 three bushels of the caterpillars. 



LlTEEATUBE OP THE CUT-WOEMS. 



Dr. Harris, in the first edition of his admirable report, published 

 in 1841, and entitled " A Report on the Insects of Massachusetts 

 Injurious to Vegetation," prefaces his discussion of cut-worms, 

 occupying fourteen pages, with this brief summary of the general 

 ignorance of them at the time of his writing : " Numerous com- 

 plaints have been made of the ravages of cut-worms among corn, 

 wheat, grass, and other vegetables in various parts of the country. 

 3 



