860 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
ARMY WORM. EATS GRASS AND GRAIN ONLY. ITS MARCH. 
the ground, like the cut worm. They rest in such places during 
the heat of the day, and come out towards sunset, to feed and 
continue forward in their mighty march. If they come to a field 
of grass or grain that is young and tender they devour the whole 
of it, down to the very roots ; but if it is grown up to stalks, they 
eat the leaves only, and then usually crawl to the top of the stalk 
and cut oft' the head and drop it to the ground. In corn, too, they 
eat off all the leaves except the coarse keel or mid vein. One 
writer noticed a worm to eat a square inch of corn leaf in thirty 
minutes. It is leaves which are green and.juicy that they eat; 
the dry leaves of ripened grain they do not feed upon. 
They appear to be excellent botanists, knowing perfectly well 
what plants belong to the natural orders Graminia and Cyperacea , 
including the different kinds of grain and grass; these they eat, 
passing by everything else. When they are pressed with hunger, 
however, and do not readily find any grass or grain, they some¬ 
times eat other vegetation slightly, but evidently do not relish 
it. Thus, they do not attack the vines of pumpkins, potatoes, 
peas, beans, flax, clover, nor the leaves of apple trees or any 
other trees or shrubs. 
They all keep together like an army of soldiers, and usually 
advance in a particular direction, in a straight line, not swerving 
from their course to avoid hills, hollows, buildings or any other 
obstacle. A stream of running water, even, does not cause them 
to deflect from the line of their march. We learn from Solon 
Robinson that, on coming to a brook they crowd into it, although 
very few of them chance to be carried by its current to the oppo¬ 
site side. Millions of them are drowned, their dead bodies clog¬ 
ging and damming up the stream in places below, producing by 
their decay a stench in the atmosphere of the whole vicinity 
which is most noisome and intolerable. 
In their march they travel faster at some times than others, 
advancing at the rate of from two to six rods in an hour. Thus 
instances have occurred in which an army of these worms, two 
or three miles wide, have advanced six or seven miles, leaving the 
track behind them as desolate as though fire had swept over it. 
These worms continue to feed and travel for about three weeks 
from the time they are first discovered, when they all disappear, 
their work being finished. It was a perfect mystery to our grand¬ 
fathers what became of them, as none of their dead carcases 
