306 



LEPIDOI'TEKA. 



ated. The dot and reniform spot are very distinct, being sit- 

 uated on a black ground, and tliere is a basal, median, black 

 streak on the fore wing. The apex of the hind wings is much 



produced. The larvae, 

 called "cutworms," are 

 thick, with a distinct, 

 horny, prothoracic 

 plate, like that in the 

 Tortrices, or leaf-rol- 

 lers ; they are marked 

 I with shining and warty, 

 or smooth and concolor- 

 ^'^- 2^^* ous spots, and often lon- 



gitudinal dark lines, and live by day hidden under sticks and 

 the roots of low plants ; feeding by night. The pupa is found 

 living under ground. Agrotis tessellata of Harris (Fig. 237) 

 is dark ash colored ; the two ordinary spots on the fore wings 

 are large and pale, and alternate with a triangular and a square, 

 deep, black spot. It expands an inch and a quarter. Agrotis 



devastator Harris is the moth of 

 the cabbage cut-worm. Another 

 very abundant species, often seen 

 fl3'ing over the blossoms of the 

 } Golden-rod in autumn is t\\Q Agro- 

 tis subgothica (Fig. 238). Mr. 

 Riley states that this moth is the 

 "parent of a cut- worm which very 

 closely resembles that of A. Coch- 

 rani, but which has the dark side 

 divided into two stripes. The 

 , Fig. 239. cnrysalis remains somewhat longer 



in the ground, and the moth makes its appearance from four 

 to six weeks later than A. Cochrani." 



A. suffusa Den. and Schief. (A. telifera of Harris, fig. 239) 

 is so named from the lance-like streaks on the fore wings. It 

 appears late in July, and probably attacks corn, as Mr. Uhler 

 has found the chrysalids at the roots of corn in Maryland. 

 Riley describes the larva under the name of the Large Black 

 Cut-worm. It is an inch and a half in length when crawling. 



