27 



CtlT-WonUS. TUB INJCRIKS THEY DO. 



and studded with little rust-colored points. The insect remains in the co- 

 coon from eighteen to twenty days and then comes forth in its perfect state. 

 Like other caterpillars of the group to which it belongs, this is a general 

 feeder, Rubsisting upon low herbaceous plants of almost every kind, and 

 on a pinch feeding also upon the leaves of trees and shrubs. An incident 

 related by Duponchel (Hist. Nat. des Chenilles), sliows how able it is to 

 sustain itself upon any substance of a vegetable nature which is sufficiently 

 soft for it to masticate. Having forgotten one of these caterpillars which 

 he had wrapped up in a paper envelope and inclosed in a wooden box, he 

 afterwards discovered it had nourished itself upon the paper, as was pro- 

 ren by the dry pellets of excrement in the box, and had after this com- 

 pleted its transformations, producing a moth whicli was a dwarf in its size 

 but witii very bright colors. Some curious facts arc reported, showing the 

 colors of tills moth to vary according to the quality of the food on which 

 the caterpillar is nourished. Thus if it be fed upon lettuce or other vege- 

 tation of a similar succulent nature, the colors of the moth are more dim 

 and pale than when it is reared on substances which are less watery. The 

 German collectors are said to obtain the variety having the under wings 

 black by forcing the caterpillars to feed exclusively upon Ihe leaves of the 

 walnut. Some of the French, however, are stated to have tried this with- 

 out success. It may be that some concurring atmospherical influences, 

 some peculiarity of the season, is also necessary to insure the particular 

 result. The species certaiidy presents a most interesting subject for the 

 experiments of amateurs. 



12, CoR^f Cut-Worm, Agrotis nigricans, Linn., Var. Maizi. (Lepidoptera. 

 Noctuidae.) Plate 4, fig. 2, 3. 



In Jane, severing the young Indian corn and other plants, half an inch above the ground, by 

 night, and by day hiding itself slightly under the surface; a thicl<, cylindrical, gray worm an 

 inch and a quarter long, with rather fuint, paler and darker stripes, the tup of its neck shining 

 black with three whitish stripes. 



The insects from which our farmers experienced the greatest vexation 

 and injury the past season (1863), were the Cut-worms — the same worms 

 which are sometimes called corn-grubs, and which in English agricultural 

 works are termed surface grubs or surface caterpillars. The name Cut- 

 worm, however, is most commonly given to them in this country, both in 

 print and in common conversation, and appears to be the most appropriate 

 and best term by which to designate them, having allusion as it does to a 

 habit which is peculiar to these worms, namely, that of cutting off tender 

 young plants as smoothly as though it was done with a keen-edged knife. 



These Cut-worms are among tlie most important injurious insects of our 

 country. It is mostly in our fields of Indian corn and in our gardens that 

 their depredations are noticed. They are so common as to occasion some 

 losses almost every year; whilst every few years they make their appear- 

 ance in such numbers as to nearly or quite ruin the corn-fields, obliging the 

 proprietors to plant their ground a second and even a third time, or to ro- 

 plow it and sow it with a difiereut crop. Thus, in consequence of the pre- 



