Bulletin 151, Truck and Garden Insects


controlled by the same measures as given for the corn ear-
worms when working as bud worms. (See page 151.) The
armies may be repelled with fair success by the Kansas bait,"
or the food-plants may be sprayed or dusted with lead arsenate,
paris green or any other arsenical. This is applied best while
the caterpillars are working ongrass, before enteringthecornfield.
 The eggs are laid mostly on grasses in masses of fifty or
 more and hatch in about ten days. The caterpillars require
 about two weeks in which to become full-size, which is about
 11/4 inches long. They are rather slender. Their color is brown
 with a narrow yellowish-gray stripe along the middle of the
 back and a brownish-black one along the side. On the head the
 central line branches, making a conspicuous V-shaped white
 mark, which helps to identify the caterpillar. The body is
 covered with small black prominences from each of which a
 short, stiff, black hair arises. The adult is a moth resembling
 those of cutworms, to which it is closely related.
 ROOT WEBWORMS (Crambus sp.)
 These also are caterpillars that often do severe damage to
 young corn in the spring. In April, 1914, they destroyed many

















 FIG. 82.-Bill-bug (Sphenophorus callosus): a, Larva; d, adult. Greatly en-
 larged. (From U. S. Bur. of Ent.)
acres about Gainesville and other places. They always do more
damage than they are charged with, much of their work being
attributed to cutworms. There are several species of these
insects, but all of the caterpillars are reddish, pinkish or brown,
with conspicuous dark spots on their backs. Like cutworms,