COT-WOnJIS. THE STRIPED WOnil FOLLOWED BY TUE LAROBn YELLOW-HEADED WonM, 



were it not that it is this very act which renders this creature such a pest, 

 such a nuisance to us ! 



As to till- kinds of plants which these worms thus sever to feed upon 

 them, they appear to have but little if any preferences. They relish every- 

 thing that is young and tender and succulent. Thus they attack the corn, 

 the flax, the potato stalks in our fields, and in our gardens the cabbage 

 plants and beans, cucumber and melon plants, beets and parsnips, and also 

 the red-rood and several other weeds. Nor are they limited to herbaceous 

 plants. Where a sucker starts up from the root of a tree, while it is yet 

 young and tender it is liable to be severed, if one of these worms chances 

 to find it. 



They appear to have no discrimination in their taste, but relish equally 

 well the most acrid and bitter plants, with those which are mild and aro- 

 matic. Thus the onion stalks in our gardens are about as liable to be cut 

 off as any other plants; and I have known the acrid smart-weed to be 

 severed by them. The past summer, I set out in my garden a few tobacco 

 plants, that I might notice what insects would come upon this filthy weed- 

 and withiu a few days after, one of these Cut-worms gave me a very palpa- 

 ble reminder that he would not tax me for cabbages and beans if I would 

 only furnish him with what tobacco he wanted to chew. I have known a 

 piece of writing paper to be partially consumed by one of these worms en- 

 closed in a box where it became pressed with hunger. And where several 

 worms are enclosed together in a box of dirt, over night, without any food, 

 it is a common occurrence for the larger ones to devour the smaller ones. 

 The past season, it was upon the 22d of May, in a hot bed, that 1 first no- 

 ticed a plant severed by a Cut-worm; and the query at once arose, how 

 could this worm get into such a close and secure place as that was? The 

 loam forming the top of the bed had been obtained from the garden; and 

 it was evident this worm must have been lying in the soil there, and had 

 been brought from thence, in this soil, when the bed was being made. And 

 the warmth of the bed had quickened the growth of this worm and brou"-ht 

 it forward in advance of all its fellows. 



Tiirce days later, the first bean plant in the garden was found cut off by 

 another of these worms; and from that time thc^y continued to become more 

 common until about the first of June, when they were out in their full force 

 both in the fields and in the gardens. At first I supposed the worms in the 

 cornfields were different from those in the gardens. But the more I exam- 

 ined and compared them, the more assured I became that they were all of 

 one species, although they varied greatly, some being pale and others dark, 

 and some having very distinct stripes, whilst others had them scarcely per- 

 ceptible. It was the same species which I named the Striped Cut-worm, in 

 the Transactions of 1855, p. 545. It continued out in full force, depredating 

 everywhere in the fields of flax and corn and in gardens, for a period of three 

 weeks, when, the worms having got their growth, began to be less nume- 

 rous, and had all disappeared at the end of the month. 



Just as this worm was about to vanish, another one, larger and more 

 voracious, came out to occupy its place and continue the work of destruc- 

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