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TURNIP. 
Turnip Grub. Agrotis segetum, Westwood. 
Agrotis segetum. 
a. 
Turnip (or Dart) Moth, and caterpillar. 
The surface-caterpillars, and more particularly the special kind 
known as the “ Turnip grub,” which is figured above, together with 
the moth to which it turns, are now one of the regular insect troubles 
of the year. The grubs are of a dingy greenish or purplish brown or 
smoke colour, with two darker lines along the back and one on each 
side, hut the colouring and depth of marking is very variable. They 
have a few dark spots on the segments, these spots being arranged 
transversely on the second and third segment from the head, which is 
brownish, and the grub is furnished with three pairs of claw-feet, and 
with four pairs of sucker-feet beneath the body, and another pair at 
the tip of the tail. The grubs when disturbed roll themselves up in a 
tight ring. The moth has the front pair of wings freckled and marked 
with black, or some shade of brown or greyish, and the hinder wings 
mainly of a dirty white. 
The method of life is for the grub to feed during late summer and 
autumn, then during winter to feed or to hybernate in cells it makes 
well down in the earth, so as to protect it from too much cold; and if 
all has been favourable to the grub it comes out again in spring, and 
also feeds again, until in May or June it turns to a smooth brown 
chrysalis in the ground, from which the moth comes out in about 
three or four weeks. This caterpillar is now so regularly mischievous 
that the attack needs attention and experiment to find what could be 
done to check it. Excepting when very young, these caterpillars feed 
almost entirely below the surface of the ground, and are considered to 
attack almost any kind of plant that is eatable, but are chiefly injurious 
to Turnips, Swedes, and Cabbage. They have also been reported in 
the last few years as doing mischief to Mangold, Oat-plant, and Celery; 
