A Preliminary List of the Cutworms Known to Occur in Iowa

For the past two years the writer has been giving special attention to collecting and rearing life histories of the members of the Family Noctuidae to which the cutworms belong, and in studying their taxonomy. There are over 2600 species of this family in the United States. Noctua is the Latin word for owl: these moths fly by night and some have shiny eyes, hence they are called owlet moths. Like the adults, the larvae feed at night. The larvae may be distinguished from white grubs (Phyllophaga sp.) which are often erroneously called cutworms by the presence of prolegs on the abdomen. Cutworms curl up, head to tail, when at rest or disturbed. Because of the difficulty of distinguishing the harmful species from those which are relatively harmless, there has been appended to this paper a list of the Noctuids up to the genus Catocala, which should include the species commonly designated as cutworms