THE CHECKERED RUSTIC. 445 



collar is edged with black ; and the ahdomcn is light brown- 

 ish gray. It expands one inch and four tenths. 



The smallest of these rustic moths may be called Agrotis 

 tessellata (Fig. 221), the checkered 

 rustic. It probably comes near to ^'^' ~^^' 



the ocellina and aqiulina of Europe, 

 which, however, I have not seen. 

 The fore wings are dark ash-colored, 

 and exhibit only a famt trace of the 

 transverse double wavy bands ; the 

 two ordinary spots are large and pale, and alternate with 

 a triangular and a square deep black spot ; there is a smaller 

 1)lack spot near the base of the wing. The hind wings are 

 l):-ownish gray in the middle, and blackish behind. It ex- 

 pands one inch and one quarter. 



The fifth species I am assured by one of my friends is the 

 moth of the cabbage cut-worm. It agrees, in the main, with 

 the description given of the Plialcena Noctiia devastator^ by 

 Mr. John P. Brace, in the first volume of Professor Silli- 

 man's "American Journal of Science"; and may therefore 

 be called Agrotis devastator. It somewhat resembles Dr. 

 Boisduval's figures of the Agrotis latens of Europe. The 

 for-e wings are of a dark ashen-gray color, with a lustre like 

 satin ; they are crossed by four narrow wavy whitish bands, 

 which are edged on each side with black ; there is a trans- 

 verse row of white dots -followed by a row of black, arrow- 

 shaped spots, between the third and fourth bands, and three 

 white dots on the outer edge near the tip ; the ordinary spots 

 are 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 touching 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 common between the 



