4 



These pests are the most serious of the vegetable-feeding insects 

 and work great destruction likewise in grass lands. Thus far they 

 have proved the greatest pest of the tobacco plants in the Hamakua 

 experimental held of this station, attacking the newly-set plants in the 

 field. The species most destructive to tobacco will no doubt prove to 

 be the so-called greasy cutworm. 



THE GREASY CUTWORM. 



(Agrotis ypsilan Rott. )« 



This insect is widely distributed in Canada and the United States 

 and occurs also in Europe. Howard records it as "one of the tobacco 



cutworms " andQuaintance believes 

 it to be "the more common insect 

 destructive to tobacco" in the State 

 of Florida. 



The eggs are laid in the lower 

 portions of the stem or leaves of 

 various plants, and the larva?, on 

 hatching, feed on the young succu- 

 lent portions of their food plants, 

 which, in the cultivated varieties, 

 include nearly all products of the 

 vegetable garden, and such field 

 crops as tobacco and corn. The 

 larva and adult can be recognized 

 from the accompanving illustration 



(%. i). 



The head of the larva is darker than the body, the latter being of a 

 dull brown, varying to o-rav. It is distinguished by the characteristic 

 greasy appearance of the skin. When full grown the larva is about 1| 

 inches long. The very young larvae are comparatively slow in their 

 development and may be several months in reaching the advanced 

 larval stages when, because of their increased size and greater destruc- 

 tiveness. they become conspicuous. 



REMEDIES. 



To wait until the cutworm makes its appearance in the tobacco field 

 will mean in many cases a loss of a large percentage of the plants. 

 This insect is to be controlled mainly by so-called poisonous baits 

 applied before symptoms of the insect's work are noticed, or even 

 before the plants are transferred from the seed beds to the field. 

 Newly prepared lands, especially those recently cleared or adjoining 



uncultivated areas: areas grown to any of the food plants of this pest, 



m ^ . 



^Oleyrick. Fauna Hawaiiensis, Vol. I, Part II, p. 143^ A. suffusa and .1. telifera 

 are svnonvm<. 



Fig. 1. — The greasy cutworm {Agrotis ypsilon). 

 o.. Larva in characteristic position: 5, head of 

 larva; c. adult moth — natural size (from How- 

 ard ). 



