usually be distinguished by their color markings, but in general Cutworms vary from dingy, grayish-white to velvety, brownish-black in Cutworms of different species are variously marked with color. triangular dark spots or converging dark lines. When full grown they measure from an inch to two inches in length. FIG. 30.-Pupa of Granulated Cutworm, about natural size. The Pupae. The pupa of Cutworms (Fig. 30) are uniformly dark mahogany brown in color, and they resemble each other very closely in general characteristics. The Adults. The adults of Cutworms (Figs. 31, 32, 33) are all medium-size dingy moths with dark grayish or blackish fore wings marked with spots, streaks, and dashes of lighter gray. The hind wings are grayish-white with black veins and dusky outer margins. Life-history and Habits. The number of generations of Cutworms annually is very difficult to determine, as they overlap in a most confusing manner. There are certainly several each year in North Carolina. Part of the Cutworms evidently pass the winter in the pupæ condition, but most Cutworms pass the winter as partially grown larvæ. It is for this reason that they are so very destructive in the early spring. Hibernating over winter as they do, and being deprived of their food by spring plowing, they are nearly starved when the tobacco is transplanted. They nearly always make up for their long starvation period by eating a large amount of food. Cutworms do not seem to prefer their food in a green state, hence they cut it off and let it wilt before they eat it. Frequently, however, they cut off in this way a great deal more than they are ever able to eat. The larvæ pupate beneath the ground in little earthen cells. The moths mate soon after they issue and the female moths lay their eggs almost anywhere green vegetation is to be found. The eggs are placed on the leaves or stems of plants, on sticks or stones, lying on the ground-in fact, almost anywhere. The last generation of moths issue in the fall. They lay their eggs, the larvæ hatch and become partially grown before frost, when they burrow into the ground and pass the winter evidently more or less unaffected by heat and cold. By spring they are ready to devour anything green that happens to be in their way. Cutworms are especially troublesome in land that has lain in sod or grown up with weeds. They are often also very troublesome after clover. Food Plants.-Cutworms are perhaps the most general feeders among insects. They seem to eat anything that is green, whether it be stems, leaves, or fruit. They are perhaps destructive to such plants as are transplanted early in the spring. Control. Preventives. As the moths lay their eggs either in sod land or land that is growing some new crop, it naturally follows that tobacco should not be planted after crops of this kind. If the land that is to be planted in tobacco is plowed early in the fall before the adult moths of the last generation have laid their eggs, vegetation will be kept down and the moths will seek some other field to lay their eggs. Of course, it would be necessary in following this method of preventing Cutworms to see that all vegetation is completely turned under. Remedies. In fields that are suspected of having Cutworms, all weeds and trash should be plowed under two or three weeks in advance of transplanting time and the field cleared of Cutworms by using poisoned bait. There are two kinds of poisoned bait that may be used in this way. One may be known as the green clover bait and the other as the bran bait. In preparing the clover bait it is only necessary to spray a small patch of clover with Paris green at the rate of 1 ounce to 6 gallons of water. The clover is then cut and little balls about the size of the fist are scattered through the field. It is usually best to place the bait in rows about six feet apart, placing the balls every four or five feet. By placing the balls in this way the Cutworms will have little trouble in finding them. Each ball of bait should be covered with a shingle or piece of board, otherwise it is apt to wilt too soon. The clover bait may also be made by dipping little balls of clover in Paris green at the strength mentioned above instead of spraying it upon the clover. Another bait which is frequently recommended to be used against Cutworms is one made of bran, as follows: One pound of sugar is dissolved in about 5 gallons of water and to this is added about 5 pounds of bran (shipstuff) or enough to make a mixture which will just squeeze between the fingers. To the bran mixture is then added an ounce of Paris green. This mixture is scattered through the fields in rows just as the green clover bait. By some it is said that Cutworms prefer the bran mash to the green clover bait. INSECTS OCCASIONALLY INJURIOUS TO TOBACCO. When the insects mentioned on the following pages do become serious they are usually very troublesome, but they are, on the whole, insects whose presence in destructive numbers is usually due to some especially favorable condition. Among these special conditions the following might be mentioned: Unfavorable location of seedbed or tobacco field, thus bringing insects that feed normally upon other plants in close proximity to the tobacco plants; weeds that breed and harbor insects, unfavorable weather conditions for the tobacco plant, thus making it especially susceptible to the attacks of certain insects, and the absence of natural enemies of an insect that allows it to increase in enormous numbers. The Grouse Locust.1 (Order Orthoptera.) A peculiar small grasshopper (Fig. 34) found in the seedbeds eating the leaves, especially the young leaves before they have unfolded from the bud. At Stem, this past season, the Grouse Locust was decidedly more destructive to the tobacco seedlings than the Flea Beetle. Many of the plants were suffering from the attacks of both insects, but whereas the Flea Bugs were riddling the fully expanded leaves, they were in no way injuring the buds, and the plants were able to continue in spite of their attack. On the other hand, the Grouse Locust was eating the buds of the plant, almost completely destroying the leaves before they could expand. (Fig. 35.) Thus the plants were so severely checked that they did not recover. Many plants (at least 20 per cent of the entire number) were killed outright, and many more (30 to 40 per cent of the entire number) were so badly injured that they were "Tettigidea lateralis. unfit for transplanting. Just how long this work has been going on is impossible to say, for the tobacco farmers were attributing all the injury to the Flea Bug. FIG. 35.-Tobacco Plant from Tobacco Seedbed, showing The adult grasshopper (Fig. 34) is about half an inch long, dark yellowish-brown in color. The grasshoppers of this group are readily distinguished from other short-horned grasshoppers by the fact that the back of the grasshopper is extended in a long, narrow, pointed projection which partially covers and extends beyond the end of the |