85 



Besides the species above mentioned, Nephelodes violans and 

 Agroiis suhgofhica were last year especially common in Central 

 Illinois. 



In 1888 a chorus of complaints arose from every part of the 

 Htate; first at the south, where the cutworm hordes were often 

 mistaken ' for the army worm; and later from Southern and North- 

 ern Illinois. Besides their unprecedented numbers, these cutworms 

 were remarkable for their indiscriminate feeding habits and for 

 the long period of their mischievous activity. The severity of 

 their attack upon potatoes, especially, — a plant not commonly con- 

 sidered liable to injury by these insects, — suggested for them in 

 many places, the common name of the "potato cutworm." 



Of course several species were concerned both years in this at- 

 tack, the dominant ones not being the same, however, in the two. 

 In 1887, the commonest were the W-marked cutworm {Agroiis 

 clandestina) and the bronzed cutworm (Nephelodes violans); but 

 in 1888 the clay-backed cutworm (Agroiis morrisoniana) was by far 

 the most numerous and widely distributed. 



The well-known Agrotis suhgothica was also extremely numer- 

 ous, but of much less importance than the preceding; and in one 

 case Agrotis ypsilon destroyed several acres of corn. 



The unexampled continuance of the outbreak, reaching, as it did, 

 far into June and even into July, was explained when the life 

 history of the most abundant species was ascertained. 



Taking up in order those on which notes have been made deemed 

 worthy of publication, 1 will discuss more fully the injuries of the 

 season when treating of the kinds most concerned in them. 



The W-marked Cutworm.* 

 {Agroiis clandesiina, Harris.) 



(Plate v., fig. l.j 



This common species, not extraordinarily abundant here in 1888, 

 was, as already mentioned, unusually common in the central part 

 of the {State in 1887. 



DESCRIPTION OF LARVA. 



The current description of this species does not apply to our 

 specimens with recognizable closeness, and I add a description 

 drawn up from four lots collected- in Central Illinois in 1887. 

 The species is distinctly marked, even to a casual inspection, by 

 four rows of conspicuous black spots, two subdorsal, and one upon 

 each side, having the spiracles at their lower edge. The subdorsal 

 spots are more or less triangular in outline (most evidently so pos- 

 teriorly), with the apex forward; the lateral ones oblique. 



'This common name, given by Riley, is here continued because it has been already often used in 

 ^coD<lfnic literature. The "W" marks are not evident, however. 



