54 



Another bait, known as the bran-arsenic mash, is also valuable for 

 the same purpose, and is prepared by combining one part by weight 

 of white arsenic, one of sugar or a like quantity of molasses, with six 

 of bran, and enough water to form a mash. This is distributed in the 

 same manner as the green bait. Before setting out plants in fields 

 which experience has demonstrated are apt to be infested with cut- 

 worms, or in new ground which has been in grass and is therefore 

 liable to contain these insects, it is advisable to use one or the other of 

 these baits. 



THE SPOTTED CUTWORM. 



(Noctua c-nigi'um Linn. ) 



The spotted cutworm, which is also known as the corn cutworm, is 

 one of the best known species of this group occurring in our country. 



Like the preceding it appears 

 to be an introduced form, and 

 is common to America, Europe, 

 and Asia. It was found depre- 

 dating on violets in the late fall 

 of 1899 and 1900 in different 

 portions of Virginia; and other 

 complaints of injuries during 

 the latter year have been re- 

 ceived from Indiana, where it 

 was injuring early cabbage and 

 tomatoes ; from Connecticut, 

 where it had assumed the army- 

 worm habit, and was eating a 

 great variety of herbage, in- 

 cluding many cultivated plants, and in Ohio, where it was reported 

 by Professor Webster as injurious in wheat fields in March. It was 

 one of the common species in Maryland during the past } 7 ear, and in 

 all seasons ranks with the foremost noxious cutworms over consider- 

 able territory. 



DESCRIPTIVE. 



The moth. — The adult of this species of cutworm is a rather 

 attractive and well-marked species. It has brown fore-wings, tinged 

 with reddish in light individuals and purplish in darker ones. The 

 anterior portion of the fore-wings is marked as shown in the illustration. 

 (Fig. 18, a.) The reniform spot is partially suffused laterally, and at a 

 distance of about one-third between it and the thorax is a larger tri- 

 angular gray spot; back of this, and approaching the reniform, are 

 two black, velvety spots, and there is another one on the anterior mar- 

 gin, near the tip. The collar is pronounced and of a gray color; the 



Fig. 18. — Noctua c-nigrum: a, moth; b, larva — some- 

 what enlarged (original). 



