REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



289 



CABBAGE INSECTS. 



In our last annual report we published an article upon Cabbage 

 Worms, taking up in succession all tbe Lepidopterous larv® which 

 Lave come into prominence as destroyers of Cabbage, and which, from 

 their habits, are subject to the same or similar remedial measures. 

 From these the cut-worms were necessarily excluded on account of 

 their different feeding habits, and they will be considered in this 

 article in connection with the principal cabbage insects belonging to 

 other orders. 



CABBAGE CUT WORMS. 



Order Lepidoptera ; family Noctuidje. 



There are a number of species usually concerned in the work which 

 the truck farmer generally puts to the account of "the cut-worm." 

 The habits of all are in most respects similar, and we can best treat of 

 them all under one head, giving the general habits and characters 

 which will answer for all, and afterward considering each species sep- 

 arately. 



The common cut-worms are all larva3 of Noctuid moths, and princi- 

 pally of the genera Agrotis, Eadena, and Mamestra. They are, as a 

 rule, stout, naked worms of somber colors, curling into a roll when dis- 

 turbed, and transforming to naked pupae under ground. The moths, 

 in general colors, are as somber as their larvae, but the softness of the 

 tints and the delicacy of the shading render them fully as beautiful as 

 more highly-colored species. They fly only by night or at dusk, unless 

 startled from their retreats at the roots of grass tufts or other secluded 

 spots, when they fly for a short distance with a quick, darting motion, 

 and then seek shelter. It is generally stated, following Harris, that 

 they lay their eggs usually, in the Northern States, from the middle to the 

 close of summer, attaching them generally to some substance near the 

 ground. While this statement is broad enough to include, doubtless, 

 more or less truth, yet it nevertheless remains true that in cases 

 where actual observations have been made, the eggs have been laid 

 on the twigs and branches of shrubs or trees, away from the herbaceous 

 food of the young larvae which thus are obliged to seek it as tbe neces- 

 sary first act of their lives. The young worms hatch out and feed un- 

 noticed upon the superabundant vegetation, and, so far as they have 

 been traced, the first larval stages differ from the later chiefly in the 

 front pair of prolegs being atrophied so as to cause the worms to loop 

 in walking as do the Geometers. At the approach of winter they are 

 usually from half to full grown, and seek hibernacula under stones 

 and logs, or burrow beneath the surface of the ground. From these 

 winter quarters they come forth on the approach of spring with raven- 

 ous appetites and work great injury to many young and tender plants, 

 not contenting themselves with feeding upon the leaves, but cutting 

 oft' the plants at the stem. Many of them feed by day as well as by 

 night, pulling into their underground burrows leaves and sprouts, and 

 there devouring these at their leisure. The pupa state lasts from three 

 to four weeks. Many of the species are single-brooded even as far south 

 as Missouri, but others have two annual generations. Notwithstand- 

 ing the hiding propensities of the larvae they are, nevertheless, subject 

 19 A — '81 



