OHT-WOBMS. BAVE NKVER YET BEEN INVESTIO ATED. 



way of destroying the grubs in corn and flax ? " No answer to this inquiry, 

 of sufficient importance for publication, was received. 



But, althougli these Cut-worms have always been such a formidable foe 

 in this country, against which the cultivators of the soil have had to con- 

 tend, they have not, down to the present day, been subjected to any care- 

 ful scientific examination. It was formerly supposed they were all of but 

 one kind, one species of insect. In our day it has been ascertained that 

 they are of several diflerent kinds, and that they are bred from a particular 

 group or family of millers or n.oths, of a dark color, which fly about in the 

 night time and remain at rest and hid from our observation during the day — 

 most of them belonging to the genus named Agrolix by naturalists. But 

 the observations which have been made upon these Cut-worms have been 

 so hasty and superficial, that, when we see one of these worms cutting off 

 the young corn in our fields or the cabbage plants in our gardens, we are 

 unable to give it its exact name; we are unable to say what particular 

 species of miller or moth it is which has produced that worm. 



All that has yet been done towards a scientific investigation of this sub- 

 ject may be narrated in a few words. 



Upwards of forty years ago, Mr. Brace, of Litchfield, Ct, in a sliort arti- 

 cle published in the first volume xif Silliman's Journal, gave what he evi- 

 dently regarded as a sufficient elucidation of this matter. It appears that 

 in a patch of ground planted with cabbages, where the worms liad been 

 numerous, he found their pupaj to be common, lying a few inches below the 

 surface, just after the worms had disappeared. From some of these pupoe 

 he obtained the miller or moth. In the article alluded to, he merely des- 

 cribes this milieu- as being the insect which produces the Cut-worm, naming 

 it the Phalena devadalor or the Devastating miller. As he supposed all the 

 Cut-worms were of one kind, he gives no description of the worm from 

 which this millor is produced. And thus it remains unknown to this day 

 what the characters and appearance of the worm are which belongs to this 

 miller which Mr. Brace described. 



Some ten years after this. Dr. Harris, one season, gathered a number of 

 full grown Cut-worms from diflerent situations, to breed the moths from 

 them; but what is most surprising, he took no notes of the differences in 

 the appearance of these worms. He obtained from them four different 

 moths in addition to the one which Mr. Brace had previously obtained. 

 These he names and describes, but is unable to give any account of the 

 worms which belong to either one of these species. 



In the Second lleport which I presented to this Society, I gave very exact 

 figures of the miller which Mr. Brace described, and of two others of the 

 most common millers of our country belonging to the same group; and I 

 also described five of the Cut-worms which I had noticed as being common 

 kinds in our cornfields and gardens. Finally, in my Third Report I was 

 able to give an account of one of our Cut-worms, and the moth which was 

 raised from it. ^ 



And this is the posture in which this subject now stands. Seven of the 

 moths or millers of our country, which produce Cutworms, have been named 



