LEPIDOPTERA. 325 



edged with black and white, and there is a third spot, of an oval 

 shape and blackish color, near the middle of the wing, and touch- 

 ing the second band. The hind-wings are light brownish gray, 

 almost of a dirty white in the middle, and dusky behind. The 

 head and thorax are chinchilla-gray ; and the abdomen is colored 

 like the hind-wings. It expands from one inch and five eighths 

 to one inch and three quarters. This kind of moth is very com- 

 mon between the tenth of July and the middle of August. Like 

 all the foregoing species, it flies only at night. According to Mr. 

 Brace, this moth lays its eggs in the beginning of autumn, at the 

 roots of trees, and near the ground ; the eggs are hatched early 

 in May ; the cut-worms continue their depredations about four 

 weeks, then cast their skin and become pupse or chrysalids in the 

 earth, a few inches below the surface of the ground ; the pupa 

 state lasts four weeks, and the moth comes out about the middle 

 of July ; it conceals itself in the crevices of buildings and beneath 

 the bark of trees, and is never seen during the day ; about sun- 

 set it leaves its hiding-place, is constantly on the wing, is very 

 troublesome about the candles in houses, flies rapidly, and is not 

 easily taken.* From what is known respecting the history of the 

 other kinds of ^grotis, and from the size that the cabbage cut- 

 worms are found to have attained in May, I am led to infer that 

 they must generally be hatched in the previous autumn, and that, 

 after feeding awhile on such food as they can find immediately 

 under the surface of the soil, they descend deeper into the ground 

 and remain curled up, in httle cavities which each one makes for 

 itself in the earth, till the following spring. 



Dr. F. E. Melsheimer, of Dover, Pennsylvania, has favored 

 me with the wing of a moth, which he states is produced from 

 the corn cut-worm. The following remarks on this insect are 

 extracted from his letters. " There are several species of ^^ro- 

 tis, the larvae of which are injurious to culinary plants ; but the 

 chief culprit with us is the same as that which is destructive to 

 young maize." " The corn cut-worms make their appearance in 

 great numbers at irregular periods, and confine themselves in their 

 devastations to no particular vegetables, all that are succulent 



* " American Journal of Science," Vol. I., p. 154. 



