47 



moths from the larvae, the former appearing daring late October. These 

 breedings would seem to indicate that at least some of the fall brood 

 may winter over in the adult stage. 



A NEW CUT-WORM. 



(Lvperina (Hadena) stipata Morr.) 



On May 28, while searching for Sphenophorus in a field of corn 

 planted on recently broken prairie sod, a depredator was found which 

 both in itself and method of work was new to me. Though the young 

 corn was at the time several inches high, many of the plants were with- 

 ering and dying, but aside from this neither the plant itself nor the 

 earth about it gave the least indication of the presence or nature of the 

 destroyer. Digging down in the earth about the hills, one or more of 

 the shoots would be found wholly or partly eaten off, either near or a 

 short distance above the seed, and in a single instance the seed kernel 

 itself was observed being eaten. The method of attack appeared to be 

 to first eat into the tender stem and then to burrow upward, after the 

 manner of Gortyna nitela, above ground, aud as soon as one plant was 

 consumed another was attacked, without the worm coming to the sur- 

 face. The larva3 were rather slender, from half to three-fourths of an 

 inch long, quite active and in general coloration somewhat resembling 

 the larvae of Crambus zeellus, but being more robust, spinning no web 

 and living wholly under ground. Larvae taken from the field June 8, 

 continued feeding in confinement until early in July, and the moths 

 appeared in the breeding cage about the 25th of the same month. On 

 account of being absent from home much of the time between the mid- 

 dle of June and 20th of July, it was impossible for me to get exact 

 dates. 



My own collections of larvae were from recently broken prairie sod 

 only, none being found in timothy or blue-grass sod adjoining. Farmers 

 in the vicinity of this field state, however, that the worm does work in 

 timothy sod, and serious damage in a fall-plowed field was attributed 

 to their work. 



Under date of June 15, Mr. J. C. Besom, of Anderson, Madison County, 

 Iud., wrote me that a kind of Out-worm had appeared in his fields 

 which he had never observed before. They began working on clover 

 sod, about May 10, and destroyed the first planting of corn, and were 

 at the date of writing making way with the second rjlanting, working 

 underground and eating the plants from the roots upward to the sur- 

 face of the ground. 



The larvae are whitish, striped on the back with brown, head and 

 cervical shield yellowish. Their general form is more slender and longer 

 than that of ordinary cut-worms, being nearer that of Gortyna. 



