LEPIDOPTERA. 355 



clover, in various parts of the country, and have often been 

 seen spinning down from lofts and mows where clover has 

 been stowed away.* A striking similarity between them has 

 been noticed by a writer in the " Genesee Farmer." f Stephen 

 Siblev, Esq., informs me that he observed the clover-worms, in 

 Hopkinton, New Hampshire, many years ago, suspended in 

 such numbers by their threads from a newly gathered clover 

 mow, and from the timbers of the building, as to be very 

 troublesome and offensive to persons passing through the barn. 

 He also states, that if he recollects rightly, these insects were 

 of a brown color, and about half an inch long. I am sorry to 

 leave the history of these wheat-worms unfinished ; but hope 

 that the foregoing statements, which have been carefully col- 

 lected from various sources and compared with my own obser- 

 vations, will tend to remove some of the difficulties wherewith 

 the subject has been heretofore involved. The contradictory 

 statements and unsatisfactory discussions, that have appeared 

 in some of our papers, respecting the ravages of these w^orms 

 and the maggots of the wheat-fly, might have been avoided, 

 if the writers on these insects had always been careful to give 

 a correct and full description of the insects in question. Had 

 this been done, a crawling- worm or caterpillar, of a brownish 

 color, three eighths or half of an inch in length, provided with 

 legs, and capable of suspending itself by a silken thread of its 

 own spinning, would never have been mistaken for a writhing 

 maggot, of a deep yellow color, only one tenth of an inch long, 

 destitute of legs, and unable to spin a thread. As these de- 

 structive wheat-caterpillars may be separated from the wheat 

 by threshing and winnowing, — the chaff containing them may 

 be put into large tubs, into w^hich also a sufficient quantity of 

 boiling hot water may then be poured to kill all the insects. 

 This will at least prevent their making their escape, com- 

 pleting their transformations, and laying the foundation of 

 another brood. 



At the end of the tribe of owlet-moths may be arranged 



* "New England Farmer," Vol. XYII., p. 73. 

 t " New England Farmer," Vol. XVII., p. 164. 



