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White-lined Wainscot
The insect is widely distributed, ranging from Nova Scotia to New Mexico and Texas, but apparently avoiding the Great Plains and the regions lying west of them.
It is a very common species in the Atlantic States, and at times does considerable injury to the crops. It has never, however, equaled in destructiveness the first species of the genus, to which we have given our attention on the preceding pages. It is said to be particularly attracted to the wheat when the grain is in the milk and the heads are just maturing. The damage done at this time is, in the Middle States, where winter wheat is commonly grown, due to the first generation of the insects. There are in fact two broods, one appearing on the wing in spring or early summer, the second in the late summer. The latter brood, which generally is more numerous than the first, produces the caterpillars, the pupae of which yield the moths, which, coming out in the spring of the year, lay their eggs in the wheat-fields. It is said that the habit of attacking wheat in its period of maturation has lately been acquired by this insect, and is an illustration of the way in which species, long regarded as innocuous, develop with apparent suddenness destructive tendencies.