656 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



moths began to appear in his cages, and the last one issued June 

 29th. "We found different sized, from one-half to nearly fullgrown, 

 cutworms at work on the trees in western JNew York on April 27th, 

 but did not succeed in rearing the moths before June 27th ; some 

 did not emerge until July 21st. They did. not breed readily in our 

 cages, containing young peach shoots, as only eight moths were 

 obtained from over a hundred cutworms. Our observations indicate 

 that the cutworm form an oval cell about two inches below the 

 surface of the soil and in about a week changes to a brown pupa ; 

 it seems to remain in the pupa state at least a week. 



Dr. Lintner has collected the moths in this State on July 8th and 

 August 30th. In 1886, Mr. H. S. Saunders collected nearly every 

 night at electric lights in London, Canada, from May 22d to Novem- 

 ber 2d, and found this moth common on June 15th, and 19th. It is 

 thus probable that most of them emerge from June 15th to July 15th in 

 our State. There seems to be but one brood in the course of a year. 



Nothing is definitely known of the life of this insect from the 

 time the moth emerges until the next spring. It is probable that 

 the eggs are mostly laid in July, and quite possibly on the leaves 

 or bark of the trees. They must hatch in time to allow the young 

 cutworms to attain half or two-thirds their growth before winter 

 sets in. As the moths emerge over so long a period, some eggs 

 are laid quite late in summer and thus the cutworms must vary 

 considerably in size when they go into winter quarters buried in 

 the soil. They appear above ground as soon as growth begins in 

 the spring with their appetites whetted by the long winter's fast. 



2. The Spotted-Legged Cutworm. 



Porosagrotis vetusta Walker.* 



Less than 2 per cent, of the climbing cutw^orms received from 

 western New York in 1893 and 1894 belonged to this species. 



* Synonomy. 



Mythimna vetusta. 1856. Walker, Cat. Brit. Mus., ix, 78. 



Agrotis muraenula. 1868. Grote and Kobinson, Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, i, 352, 



Porosagrotis vetusta. 1893. Smith, Bui!. 44, U. S. Nat. Mus.. p. 85. 



Mr. Grote and Prof. Smith, both recognized authorities in our systematic 

 knowledge of the North American Noctiiids, are not agreed as to the name of 

 this insect. Mr. Grote has criticised (Can. Ent., xxvi, p. 81) Prof. Smith's 

 relegation of muraenula into the synonomy of Walker's vetuesta. Our reasons for 

 adopting Prof. Smith's views are given in detail in the Canadian Entomologist 

 for November, 1895. 



