81 



Other crops affected were beets, corn, Kafir corn, wheat, oats, cabbage, 

 and grasses. 



DESCRIPTIVE. 



For the benefit of those readers of this bulletin who may not have 

 access to descriptions and illustrations of the insect, brief descriptions 

 will be furnished to serve as a means of identification in connection 

 with figure 19. 



The parent of the fall army worm is a moth and a member of the 

 family Noctuidse to which belongs the true army worm and the cut- 

 worms. The army- worm moth is quite unlike that of the common 

 army worm and veiy variable, there usually being in most localities 

 two distinct forms, a dull gray and an ornamented form. The former 

 is shown in the illustration at a. The fore-wings are dull grayish- 

 brown above and show in this color 

 variety a pattern more or less like 

 the one figured. The hind -wings 

 are glistening white with rosy reflec- 

 tions. In the more ornamental form, 

 the insect resembles one of the 

 owlet moths, particularly Prodenia 

 ornithogalli. The fore-wing of this 

 variety is figured at b. The fore- 

 wings are mottled with black and 

 white, reddish brown, and some- 

 times with pale bluish, yellowish, 

 and other tints. The wing expanse 

 is from an inch to an inch and 

 three-eighths. 



The eggs are about half a milli- 

 meter, or about one thirt} r -second 

 of an inch in diameter, and are de- 

 posited in clusters of from fifty to 

 sixty and more, often in two or three layers. The whole egg mass is 

 covered with gray-colored down from the body of the parent moth. 



The larva when first hatched is quite unlike the full-grown cater- 

 pillar, the head being proportionately larger and the body more hairy. 

 It is nearly black at this stage. The same variability observed in the 

 mature insect holds good of the coloring of the caterpillars. When 

 mature they measure about an inch and a half, and while resembling 

 the common army worm in certain particulars may readily be distin- 

 guished from that species. A full-grown caterpillar is shown in the 

 illustration at c. The notable points of difference between this larva 

 and the common army worm are in the larger and more prominent 

 piliferous tubercles and the longer hairs of the former and in the 

 17591— No. 23 6 



Fig. 19.—Laphygma frugiperda: a, moth, plain 

 gray form; b, fore- wing of Prodenia-like 

 form ; c, larva extended ; d, abdominal seg- 

 ment of larva, lateral view; e, pupa, lateral 

 view — d, twice natural size ; others enlarged 

 one-fourth (original). 



