31 
medio-dorsal rounded spots. The different stages are shown in figure 
25. During the severe outbreak of this species in 1900, already men- 
tioned, practically all forms of A^egetables, including sugar and table 
beets, were attacked, the insect even 
eating into roots and tubers and 
devouring the foliage and gnawing 
the bark of trees. 
A detailed account of this species 
is furnished in Bulletin 29, new se- 
ries. Division of Entomology. 
THE GREASY CUTWORM. 
{Agrotis ypsilon Rott.) 
This species is commonly found 
in fields of beets, and may be se- 
lected as typical of its class. In 
importance as a pest it is perhaps 
second only to the variegated cut- 
worm. It is of about the same size (fig. 26), and of a dull, dirty brown 
color, characteristic of most cutworms, with the lower portion paler 
and greenish, and the entire surface of a greasy appearance, whence 
the name. It is cosmopolitan, and has a most emphatic and pernicious 
cutting habit. It is especially 
troublesome to newly set tomato 
plants, to potato, corn, lettuce, 
and tobacco. 
THE SPOTTED CTTTWORM. 
6 ^ 
Fig. 26. — Agrotis ypsilon, a beet cutworm: a, 
larva; h, head of same; c, adult— somewhat 
enlarged (fom Howard, Division of Entomol- 
ogy). 
Fig, 27.—Noctua c-nigrum: a, moth; b, larva— some- 
what enlarged (author's illustration, Division of 
Entomology) . 
{Noctua c-nigrum Linn.) 
This is one of our commonest 
and most destructive species, 
and is commonly found on beets. 
It resembles the variegated cut- 
worm in being cosmopolitan, 
nearly omnivorous, a climbing 
species, and in migrating in 
numbers like the army worms. The moth (fig. 27, a) has brown fore- 
wings, tinged with red or purplish and marked with lighter colors 
as figured. The cutworm {b) is pale brown or gray, sometimes whit- 
ish with greenish or olive tints, and has the last segments marked 
with oblique black lines. It measures, fully extended, about an inch 
and a half. The principal crops which it has been known to injure 
include, besides beets, corn, and other cereals, cabbage, cauliflower, 
turnip, pea, carrot, tomato, celery, rhubarb, currant, gooseberry. 
