804 
ANNUAL REPORT OP NEW YORK 
CUT-WORMS. THE INJURIES THEY DO. 
and studded with little rust-colored points. The insect remains in’the co- 
coonfrom eighteen to twenty days and then comes forth in its perfect state. 
Like other caterpillars of the group to which it belongs, this is a general 
feeder, subsisting upon low herbaceous plants of almost every kind, and 
on a pinch feeding also upon the leaves of trees and shrubs. An incident 
related by Duponchel (Hist. Nat. des Chenilles), shows how able it is to 
sustain itself upon any substance of a vegetable nature which is sufficiently 
soft for it to masticate. Having forgotten one of these caterpillars which 
he had wrapped up in a paper envelope and inclosed in a wooden box, he 
.afterwards discovered it had nourished itself upon the paper, as was pro¬ 
ven by the dry pellets of excrement in the box, and had after this com¬ 
pleted its transformations, producing a moth which was a dwarf in its size 
but with very bright colors. Sume ctirious facts are reported, showing the 
colors of this moth to vary according to the quality of the food on which 
the caterpillar is nourished. Thus, if it be fed upon lettuce or other vege¬ 
tation of a similar succulent nature, the colors of the moth are more dim 
and pale than when it is reared on substances which are less watery. The 
German collectors are said to obtain the variety having the under wiugs 
black by forcing the caterpillars to feed exclusively upon the leaves of the 
walnut. Some of the French, however, are stated to have tried this with¬ 
out success. It may be that some concurring atmospherical influences, 
some peculiarity of the season, is also necessary to insure the particular 
result. The species certainly presents a most interesting subject for the 
experiments of amateurs.- 
12 . Corn- Cut-worm, Agrotis nigricans, Linn., Var. Maizi. (Lepidoptera. 
Noctuidae.) Plate 4, fig. 2, 3. 
In June, severing the young Indian oorq and other plants, half an inch above tho ground, by 
night, and by day hiding itself slightly under tho surface; a thick, cylindrical, gray worm an 
inch and a quarter long, with rather faint, paler and darker stripes, the top of its nook shining 
black with three whitish stripes. 
The insects from which our farmers experienced the greatest vexation 
and injury the past season (1863), were the Cut-worms—the same worms 
which are sometimes called corn-grubs, and which in English agricultural 
works are termed surface grubs or surface caterpillars. The name Cut¬ 
worm, however, is most commonly given to them in this country, both in 
print and in common conversation, and appears to be the most appropriate 
and best term by which to designate them, having allusion as it does to a 
habit which is peculiar to these worms, namely, that of cutting off tender 
young plants as smoothly as though it was done with a keen-edged knife. 
These Cut-worms are among the most, important injurious Insects of our 
country. It is mostly in our fields of Indian corn and in our gardens that 
their depredations are noticed. They are so common as to occasion some 
losses almost every year; whilst every few years they make their appear¬ 
ance in such numbers as to nearly or quite ruin the corn-fields, obliging the 
oroprictors to plant their ground a second and even a third time, or to re¬ 
plow it and sow it with a different crop. Thus, in consequence of the pre- 
