1881.] Entomology. 575 
own chips, which are pure green, and lives either close upon or below the surface of 
the soil. I know what the mature army worm is like from my books, but I find no 
mention of the immature larvae. If you will favor me with a line or pamphlet describ 
ing the immature worm, you will help me out of the dilemma. Doubts suggest them- 
seo because of the silken nidus which seems to me inconsistent with migratory 
abits 
It is con 
fined to the limestone ridges and to pastures. Are all our other pastures in danger? 
This is a dairy country and great harm will result if the work continues.” 
There seems to have been considerable doubt as to whether 
these worms were the true army worm or not. From specimens 
that were forwarded to us by Mr. Lintner and Mr. Adams, it 
would seem that there are two different species concerned in 
the work. The principal and larger one is the larva of Neph- 
élodes violans Guen. We have known the insect since 1871, an 
it is tolerably common All over the eastern portion of the country. 
Walsh refers to it in an unpublished note as being found in mead- 
ows under stones at Rock Island, Ill. We have found it ona 
number of occasions since 1871 in different parts of IJlinois and 
Missouri, usually hiding under planks or stones or cow dung in 
ineadows, but occasionally feeding some distance up on a grass 
stalk, even in the hot sun. When at rest it is usually curled side- 
wise and surrounded with its frass which is of a bright green 
color. The larva is one of our largest cut-worms, distinguished 
from all others by the pale amber-colored head and the bronzy 
hue of the body; the pale dorsal and sub-dorsal stripes always 
showing distinctly on the dark, highly polished cervical and anal 
plates, It is referred to by Mr. G. H. French, of Carbondale, Ill, 
in the Prairie Farmer for April, 1878, and also in Professor 
Thomas’s 2d Report on the Insects of Illinois (7th State Report, 
for 1877), pp. 99 and 220. We have also referred to it as taken 
from the stomach of a blue-bird, in the American Entomologist 
Vol. 111, p. 205. The larva is found of various sizes in the early 
Spring, some being so large as to prove hibernation in this state, 
larval hibernation being further established by the occurrence of the 
Specimen in the stomach of a blue bird shot in March, and by our 
having dug it up in a semi-torpid state last February in Virginia. 
€ species may also hibernate, however, in the imago state, in 
Which it is frequently captured in the winter, especially in the 
Southern States. The very young larve are bright-green with 
indications of the stripes which characterize the full-grown larva. 
€ eggs have not yet been discovered. Pupation takes place in 
a naked cell just beneath the surface, and not till June or there- 
aiter even in Missouri, the moth issuing in the autumn. 
he wide-spread appearance and injury of the species the pres- 
ent Spr ing, furnishes an excellent illustration of the fact, that 
Species which have never before been looked upon as injurious to 
agriculture may suddenly become so. The insect has various 
Parasites, 
