4S CIRCULAR 639, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
These insects are called wireworms because of their slenderness 
and uncommon hardness. When full-grown they are about one-half 
inch long and about one-eighth inch or less in diameter. They are 
usually yellowish with a red or brown head. 
Wireworms tunnel the stems of young tobacco plants and may eat 
out the entire pith. They may feed on the plants for only a few days, 
or the attacks may continue for a period of several weeks. 
No effective means of controlling wireworms on tobacco in this 
region have been found. Replanting with strong, vigorous plants 
as soon as the infested ones are discovered is the best known practice. 
THE SUCKFLY 
The suckfly (Dicyphus minimus Uhl.) normally causes little or 
no damage to tobacco in this region. In some instances late crops of 
cigar-wrapper tobacco are reduced in quality as the result of sporadic 
outbreaks. 
The suckfly is a very small, fragile, grayish insect and has rela- 
tively long legs and antennae. It is usually found on the under sur- 
faces of the leaves, where it feeds on the ‘plant juice. Heavily in- 
fested leaves become bleached or yellowish. The insect deposits small 
specks of excrement which add to the disfigurement of the leaves. 
The suckfly may appear in tobacco fields in June, but usually in 
very limited numbers. During the first part of July it sometimes 
occurs In sufficient abundance to cause apprehension. In the southern — 
districts the harvesting of the shade-grown crop is usually nearing 
completion at this time. 
CLIMBING CUTWORMS 
Some of the cutworms frequently assume the climbing habit and 
feed on the foliage of high tobacco. The variegated cutworm (Pe7%- 
droma margar itosa (Haw. )) and the yellow- -striped armyworm (P7o- 
denia ornithogalli Guen.) occasionally cause considerable damage to 
the crop in this region. Both these cutworms range from gray to 
FIGURE 55.—Mature larva of the climbing cutworm Prodenia ornithogalli. 
About X 4. 
black, and the second species has conspicuous triangular black mark- 
ings on the back (fig. 53). They feed on sun-grown and shade- grown 
tobacco, but are usually most abundant in the dense foliage of 
maturing shade crops. 
