ARMYWORMS, AND RELATED SPECIES 15 



Agrotis malefida Guenee 



Pale-sided Cutworm 



Distribution. — This species is recorded throughout the southern part 

 of the United States and in Cuba and Mexico, but is rare in the central 

 Great Plains. Adults were taken in light traps at Cherryvale, Man- 

 hattan, Hays, and Garden City, Kans., and at Lincoln and Scotts- 

 bluff, Nebr. They were most abundant at Garden City, where, during 

 4 seasons, 146 moths were collected at light traps. 



Economic status. — The pale-sided cutworm is of no economic im- 

 portance in the central Great Plains. In the South Jones (11) records 

 that this cutworm constitutes 2 percent of the cutworms taken at 

 Baton Rouge, La. 



Food plants and larval habits. — Sanderson (15) states that in Texas 

 the larvae were taken feeding on potato, cotton, and cabbage. Riley 

 (14) reports that the larvae live in tunnels into which they drag their 

 food. 



Seasonal history. — The species is of the multiple-generation type. 

 According to Crumb (5) there are four broods of this species a year in 

 Texas, where it passes the winter in the pupal stage, and the moths 

 emerge from the last of January to the latter part of March. The 

 second-generation moths appear about the middle of May, and the 

 third brood late in July. The earlier emerging adults of this third 

 brood produce an additional brood whose progeny pupate before cold 

 weather. 



The writer has taken adults from late in June to late in October at 

 Garden City. They may have been strays from the South, but it 

 seems quite probable that the species occupies a position similar to 

 that of the fall armyworm, which does not pass the winter successfully 

 in the central Great Plains but reestablishes itself annually from more 

 southern infestations. 



Reproductive capacity. — Eight females, taken at light traps at Garden 

 City on November 16, 1934, were dissected; 6 were spent, 1 contained 

 undeveloped eggs, and 1 contained 1,582 eggs. 



Agrotis ypsilon (Rottemburg) 



Black Cutworm 

 (Figs. 2, D; 4, H; 7, F) 



Distribution. — The black cutworm occurs throughout the United 

 States, in southern Canada, in Mexico, Hawaii, South America 

 Europe, Egypt, Rhodesia, Asia, East Indies, New Zealand, and 

 Australia, and is one of the most widely distributed of the cutworms. 



Economic status. — In the central Great Plains region the black cut- 

 worm is of minor importance, but at times it increases to destructive 

 numbers locally after floods. East of the Mississippi River it is a pest 

 of considerable importance. 



Food plants and larval habits. — The black cutworm feeds on a wide 

 variety of plants, but in the Plains States it is principally a pest of 

 young corn. The larvae are destructive out of proportion to the food 

 they consume, as they often cut off plants, apparently only to satisfy 

 this instinct, and quickly move on to other plants to repeat the process. 



