8 BULLETIN 703, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



NATURE OF DAMAGE. 



As is true with other cutworms, the most serious damage done by 

 the granulated cutworm is due to its habit of cutting off small plants 

 near the surface of the ground. Two other types of injury have 

 been noted. Where the plant is too large to be severed near the sur- 

 face the larva ascends the plant and feeds on the foliage. (See PI. 

 IV, A, B.) Since feeding is done at night the cause of the damage 

 often is not known to the grower. Irish potatoes, beets, and Brussels 

 sprouts have been observed that were defoliated in this way, exami- 

 nation revealing numerous larvae secreted in the soil beneath. 



The other type of injury is to the fruit of certain plants, princi- 

 pally when it rests on the ground. The fruit of tomato and egg- 

 plant, if so located, is sometimes bored into and made unsalable. 



(PI. IV, C.) 



DESCRIPTION OF STAGES. 



THE MOTH. 



The moth (fig. 1) is one of the somber- colored species of the fam- 

 ily Noctuidae. The fore-wings are covered above with brown, gray, 

 and black scales, among which a few white ones are often present. 

 These scales are so arranged that portions of the wings are brown or 

 gray, or a mixture of the two colors, with black markings. The fore- 

 wings of certain individuals may in general be darker or lighter 

 than those of others of the same sex, but those of the female usually 

 are darker than those of the male. The hind wings are white, more 

 or less dusky along the margins and veins. The antennae of the male 

 are pectinate, those of the female not pectinate. Ten mounted males 

 averaged 37 mm. in width from tip to tip of the fore-wings, the 

 width ranging from 31 to 40 mm. Ten females averaged 40.4 mm., 

 the widths ranging from 37 to 43 mm. The following is the descrip- 

 tion by Hampson : x 



$ [Male]. Head and thorax red-brown slightly mixed with fuscous; tegulae 

 with slight black medial line ; legs black and brown ; abdomen pale red-brown, 

 the ventral surface whitish. Fore wing pale red-brown, with some fuscous 

 suffusion below base of cell and on costal area before apex ; an indistinct double, 

 waved, black subbasal line from costa to vein 1 ; the antemedial line double, very 

 strongly dentate outwards below costa, in cell and above inner margin, and 

 angled outwards in submedian fold ; the claviform defined by black, narrow 

 and elongate; the orbicular and reniform small, defined by black, the former 

 oblique elliptical, open above, and with a black streak in the cell between it 

 and the reniform ; the postmedial line indistinct, strongly dentate, bent outwards 

 below costa, and oblique below vein 4; the subterminal line represented by a 

 series of pale and fuscous dentate marks ; the veins of terminal area streaked 

 with black, and with a terminal series of black points. Hind wing semihyaline 

 white, the costa and cilia at apex slightly tinged with brown. 



$ [Female]. Fore wing suffused with fuscous, leaving the costal area to 

 end of cell and the terminal area brown. 



1 Hampson, George F. Catalogue of the Noctuidae in the Collection of the 

 British Museum. In Catalogue of the Lepidoptcra Phalaenae in the British Museum, 

 v. 4, p. 354-355. London, 1903. 



