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Surface Aterpillars

or SURFACE GRUBS. The larvae of several species of Moths, chiefly Triphaena pronuba, Agrotis segetum, and A. exclamationis. The name is given to these larvae because of their habit of living just below the surface of the soil during the day, coming out to feed at night on low plants and herbs. They are much in the habit of gnawing through the stems of herbaceous plants below the soil, just where the stems join the roots, and thus cause the plants to wither without any evident reason. In winter, they also frequently eat their way into fleshy tubers (potatoes) and tuberous roots (turnips, &c.), Asters, many weeds, &c., and do considerable damage. In spring, the larvae become pupae in earthen cocoons; and in summer, the moths emerge. Plants suffer most from the larvae in ungenial summers, when growth is slow; and the damage then done permanently injures them. Rains occasionally enable plants to recover, even when they have suffered severely. Further information about these larvae will be found under Noctua; and the best remedies are mentioned under that heading.