NEW MEXICO RANGE CATERPILLAR AND ITS CONTROL. 5 



In cultivated crops the caterpillars devour the leaves and, in rare 

 instances, the upper and tender portions of the stem. 



The caterpillars are very greedy and wasteful feeders, often eating 

 only a small part of each plant destroyed. Frequently they will 

 bite through a plant stem several inches below its top and then eat 

 from this point down to the junction of stem and roots, leaving the 

 upper part of the plant as waste. They are equipped with large, 

 powerful jaws and eat a tremendous amount of plant matter each 



/WAS 



Fig. 4.— Diagram illustrating lile cycle of the New Mexico range caterpillar. (Original.) 



day. Much of this food is not fully digested, but passes through the 

 caterpillar and is voided in an apparently slightly changed condition. 

 Oftentimes it appears that the caterpillars eat from habit rather than 

 necessity. 



INJURY CAUSED BY POISONING UNEATEN PLANTS. 



When partly grown the range caterpillars develop poisonous spines, 

 probably as a protection against birds or insect-eating mammals. In 

 crawling from place to place, or during the process of molting, these 

 spines (see fig. 1) become scattered through the uneaten plants. 



