ARMY WORM AND CUTWORM OUTBREAKS 
347 
fifteenth of July) to the time where practically all pupae located 
showed either emergence or a parasitized state. It will be seen that 
the writer got into the field too late to get any very complete data 
on the emergence of the first brood, but it is quite plain that the 
end of that period for the year considered was about July 15. 
In fields known to have been infested with either or both of 
these worms, as a rule little trouble was experienced in locating 
pupal remains and in reading their history. They were usually 
found buried from one-half inch to an inch and a half under 
ground tho sometimes they would be found on top of the earth, 
having pupated under some little rubbish lying there. The pupae 
of the two species could be readily distinguished by color and 
size, those of the Variegated cutworm being somewhat larger than 
the Army worm pupa and a chocolate brown, while the pupa 
of the Army worm was more slender and a lighter reddish brown. 
Along the weed covered fence row of an alfalfa field north of 
Council Bluffs, the pupae of the Variegated cutworm were found 
as abundant as forty to the square foot. Out in the field they 
were not nearly so numerous. Poison bran had been used. This 
was the highest record for abundance, though a number of counts 
made in other counties approached it. A few of these pupae 
showed successful emergence but the greater percentage were 
parasitized. 
It had been noted when the worms were doing their damage 
in the spring that many were carrying tachina fly eggs. Tachina 
flies were reared from pupae of the worms taken by digging. The 
species by far the most abundant was Archytas analis, a large 
tachinid with bluish black abdomen, gray thorax, reddish brown 
eyes and white face. Many pupae of the Variegated cutworm 
taken thruout the summer were filled with the open pupar- 
ium of one of these flies. The abundance of the adult flies 
was further evidence that they had done their control work 
well. These flies could be found in abundance on the flowers 
of sweet clover, alfalfa, catnip and smartweed wherever the 
Army worm or Variegated cutworm had been numerous. In some 
fields there were so many as to suggest the presence of a swarm 
of bees. 
In almost every field visited, numerous bunches of braconid 
pupae could be found where they had emerged from their cut- 
worm host. In some counties but few pupae could be found 
even where the larvae had been numerous, showing that the para- 
sites had done their work early. 
