294 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



a species of wild endive (probably Gichorium sativum), nestling under 

 its broad leaves during the day without entering the ground, and that 

 Mr. Glover, of the Department of Agriculture, had known it to attack 

 wheat in Maryland. 



The moths begin to appear shortly after the middle of June, and fly 

 commonly until the end of August, or later. The larvre hibernate in 

 the usual manner, and transform to pupse the latter part of May or the 

 first of June. The eggs are yet undescribed. 



The larva (Plate II, Fig. -i, a) and pupa were described at length in 

 the Missouri report referred to (p. 79). The larva, when full grown, is 

 a little over an inch in length, and is ash-gray in color, inclining to 

 dirty yellow on the back. The distinguishing feature is a row of black 

 velvety marks along each side of the back on all but the thoracic joints, 

 and bearing a general resemblance, looking from anus to head, to a 

 series of W's. The head is black, with a white line in front resembling 

 an inverted Y. 



The moth (Plate II, Fig. 4, b) is of a dark ash-gray color, with faintly 

 traced wavy bands. The hind wings are dirty brownish-white, some- 

 what darker behind. 



THE GEE AS Y CUT- WORM. 



(Larva of Agrotis ypsilon Eott.) 

 [Plate II; Fig. 2.] 



We first described the larva of this insect in the Prairie Farmer for 

 June 22, 1867, under the name of the u Blnck Cut-worm," but finding 

 afterwards that it was quite variable in its coloration, we changed the 

 name in our hist report on the insects of Missouri (18G9, p. 80) to that 

 of the u Greasy Cut-worm." At that time the technical name Agrotis 

 telifera was employed, this being the name under which the moth was 

 first described in this country by Harris, In his Beport on Insects Inju- 

 rious to Vegetation, 1841, p. 323; but subsequent investigations have 

 shown that the moth occurs also in Europe, and had been described in 

 1776 by Von Eottenburg, by the trivial name of ypsilon, and later by 

 Hiibner by the name of sitj/xisa. 



It is, in fact, one of the cosmopolitan insects, as widely distributed as 

 Heliothis armigera — the parent of Boll-worm and Corn-worm, or as 

 Cynthia cardui — the well known thistle butterfly. It is one of the com- 

 monest of our Korth American cut-worms, and is found from Georgia, 

 Mississippi, and Texas, to Nova Scotia, Hudson's Bay, and Manitoba. 

 It is found in England and all over Europe. In Asia it has been cap- 

 tured, in many localities in India and China. In Africa it'is recorded 

 from Egypt, South Africa, and the Cape of Good Hope. In South 

 America specimens have been found in Venezuela, at Bahia, Brazil, and 

 Montevideo, Uruguay. It has also been received from New Zealand, 

 and from several localities in Australia, including Adelaide and More- 

 ton Bay, Queensland. These localities are taken from the British Mu- 

 seum Catalogue. Guenee gives as the habitat of the species, all of 

 Europe, America, and the West Indies. 



The larva has a most emphatic and pernicious cutting habit. We 

 have known it to cut off large tomato-plants that were over 6 inches 

 in height, generally at an inch above ground. After severing one 

 plant, the same worm would travel to other plants, and thus, in a single 

 night, would ruin three or four. In quite hard, clayey, corn land, each 



