10 
eastern half of the United States, and it is tolerably well known, par- 
ticularly in the South, as distinct from the true army worm, even to 
those not well versed in entomology its life history has not been thor- 
oughly investigated in any single locality to the writer's knowledge. 
A search through available literature fails to show that the larva has 
been described in its various stages. 
A third species of caterpillar, the spotted cutworm {Noctua c-nigrum 
Linn.), was also at work during the season of 1900, doing, however, 
less injuiy than the other species mentioned. Reports show that this 
insect was unusually destructive in Indiana and Connecticut and along 
the northern shore of Lake Ontario, where it seemed to take the place 
of the variegated cutworm which was so injurious in the western part 
of Canada. The species was also rather more abundant than usual 
in Maryland ancl Virginia. As with the two preceding species, it was 
destructive to all sorts of garden and root crops, and in one instance, 
observed in Connecticut, assumed the army-worm habit. 
A preliminary notice of the injurious occurrences of the fall army 
worm was given in Bulletin No. 23 (n. s.), and similar articles on the 
variegated and spotted cutworms were published in Bulletin No. 27. 
The two species which form the basis of the present publication 
have not the same origin, and are therefore of quite different distri- 
bution. It follows as a matter of course that a corresponding dissimi- 
larity exists in their life economy. 
The fall army worm is undoubtedly of Southern origin, and proof 
will be furnished to show that in its constant endeavors to obtain a per- 
manent footing farther north than its natural range it is thwarted every 
few years by meteorologic conditions, the extreme cold of our more 
Northern States causing its death in great numbers in its hibernating 
quarters. On this hypothesis it would seem that the reappearance of 
the species in years after its destruction is to be accounted for by 
migrations of the moths from the South northward. The variegated 
cutworm, there is little doubt, is a foreign introduction, and was 
probably brought from the Old World at an early date, as the species 
has been known to naturalists for a considerable period. 
Outbreaks of these and other species which travel in armies are 
frequently the cause of extreme alarm among farmers, fruit growers, 
and others whose crops are infested, and there is usually considerable 
apprehension of the reappearance of these insects in future seasons. 
As a consequence, it happens in army-worm seasons that the Division 
of Entomolog}^ of this Department and the entomologists of the various 
experiment stations are besieged as to the probabilities of further 
attack and the means to be employed in the destruction of the insects, 
so that a repetition of injury the next season can be averted. 
It should be stated for the benefit of the general reader that the term 
army worm has been applied to several insects which have the habit 
