30 SOME INSECTS INJURIOUS TO TRUCK CROPS. 
tained, but it was about the 21st of October, which would give a 
period for the pupa of ten months, as the moths of this lot began 
issuing August 21. a 
One individual transformed to pupa October 17 and the imago 
issued August 24 of the following year. 
October 15, 1898, the larva was brought to the writer by Mr. P. H. 
Dorsett, from his greenhouse at Garrett Park, Md., where the species 
was feeding on the foliage of violet. The same year, Xovember 3, 
this larva was found rather abundantly by Doctor Howard in tobacco 
fields in southern Virginia, near the Xorth Carolina border line, upon 
the leaves, which in some cases were badly ragged. 6 The first moths 
issued in July. 
During 1900 and 1901 correspondence was had in regard to this 
caterpillar with Mr. H. Walter Mc Williams, Griffin, Ga., who sent 
specimens, as also larva? of the so-called cotton cutworm (Prodenia 
ornithogalli Guen.), with which the insect was associated in both 
years. The caterpillars were noticed there in greatest numbers during 
Xovember, and both species were reported as destroying a number of 
garden crops, among which were cabbage, collards, turnip, ruta-baga, 
rape, peas and related plants, as also some other vegetables. Mature 
larva? were seen as late as the last week of Xovember. 
Among other office records are two which also have a bearing on 
the biology of this species. One of these was made by Mr. Theo. 
Pergande, who found the larva? in the District of Columbia feeding 
on blackberry and on flowers of a goldenrod (Solidago sp.). The 
other is a short note by Mr. F. M. Webster upon the rearing of the 
moth in spring from the seed pods of milkweed (Asclepias incar- 
nata) , near Lafayette, Ind. " The larva appeared to subsist upon the 
seeds, the pods being attached unopened to the wrecked plant." c 
October 21 the larva was found at Washington, D. C. We have no 
further records in regard to the habits of this species other than the 
capture of moths in the District of Columbia July 25, August 22 and 
25, and September 2, and there are specimens also in the U. S. 
National Museum from Lewis County, X. Y., July 4, collected by 
O. Meske, and others from Xew Jersey without definite locality. The 
species is also said to occur at Portland, Oregon. It is interesting to 
note that among these specimens are inflated larva? and mounted 
heads labeled " pretty cutworm," which might be termed a manu- 
a The rearing jar was kept under somewhat unnatural conditions, at times 
too warm and dry, but the effect of one condition might have been counteracted 
by another, and the date of issuance of the adults was not far from that which 
would be assumed in nature — more likely earlier than otherwise. 
& Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agric. for 1898, p. 142. 
c Insect Life, Vol. II, p. 382, 1890. 
