Entomological Notes. 329 



seems ready to burst from repletion, and see it prepare by a pe- 

 culiar twist of the body for the fall. This fact also accounts for 

 trees on hard, tenacious soils being comparatively exempt 

 from them, as their instinct doubtless serves them a good 

 turn, either in preventing them from ascending, or by leading the 

 parent moth to deposit her eggs, by preference, on a light 

 soil. * * * The miller prefers to lay her eggs near the hill or 

 mound over the roots of the trees in the orchard. They have 

 been known to deposit them in a spring dressing of ashes and 

 lime, put on to prevent the May beetles', operations, thus giving 

 the larvae a fine warm bed to cover themselves up in during the 

 day, concealed from the observations of their enemies. They 

 will leave potatoes, peas and other green plants for the buds of 

 the apple and pear. The long, naked young trees of the orchard 

 are almost exempt from their voracious attacks, but I have found 

 them about midnight, in dark, damp nights, well up in the limbs 

 of such trees. Salt is not repulsive to them; they burrow in it 

 as quickly and as comfortably as in ashes and lime. Tobacco, 

 soap and other washes, do not even provoke them." 



The dark sided cut-worm, given in figure 20, is one of this spe- 

 cies, and perhaps the most common one. Prof. Riley, in his de- 

 scription, says : " The general color of the larva is a dingy, ashy 

 gray, but it is characterized by its sides being darker than the 

 rest of the body. When young, it is much darker, and the white 

 which is below the lateral band, is then cream-colored and very 

 distinct. There is but one brood a year. The moths appear 

 through the months of July and August. Their color i3 a light, 

 warm gray, shaded with brown and umber. 



In speaking of their operations, copying from the reports made 

 to him, he says: "In the beginning of the evening its activity 

 is wonderful ; moving along from limb to limb swiftly, and select- 

 ing at first only the blossom-buds, to one of which having fastened, 

 it does not let go its hold until the entire bud is eaten out, and 

 from this place, so thorough is its work, no latent or adventi- 

 tious bud will ever agiin push. From a six year old fruit tree, 

 I have, on a single night, taken seventy-five of these worms, and 

 on the ensuing evening found them well nigh as plenty on the 



