448 LEPIDOPTERA. 



collar, and the abdomen are cliestnut-colorcd. It expands 

 one iiK-h and three quarters. The wings, when shut, over- 

 lap on their inner edges, and cover the top of the hack so 

 flatly and closely that these moths can get into very narrow 

 crevices. During the day they lie hidden under the bark 

 of trees, in the chinks of fences, and even under the loose 

 clapboards of buildings. When the blinds of our houses are 

 opened in the morning, a little swarm of these insects, 

 wdiich had crept behind them for concealment, is sometimes 

 exposed, and suddenly aroused from their daily slumber. 

 This kind of moth has the form and general appearance 

 of some species of Pyropldla, but not the essential characters 

 of the genus. It differs also from Agrotis and Grafjliipliora 

 in some respects, and therefore I have thought it best to 

 leave it, for the present, in the old genus Noetiia^ under the 

 specific name of dandestma, the clandestine owlet-moth. 



Among the various remedies that have been proposed for 

 preventing the ravages of cut-worms in wheat and corn 

 fields, may be mentioned the soaking of the grain, before 

 planting, in copperas-water and other solutions supposed to 

 be disagreeable to the insects : rolling the seed in lime or 

 ashes ; and mixing salt with the manure. These may pre- 

 vent wire-worms (^luli) and some insects from destroying 

 the seed ; but cut-worms prey only on the sprouts and young 

 stalks, and do not eat the seeds. Such stimulating applica- 

 tions may be of some benefit, by promoting a more rapid and 

 vigorous growth of the grain, by which means the sprouts 

 wall the sooner become so strong and rank as to resist or 

 escape the attacks of the young cut- worms. Fall-ploughing 

 of sward-lands, which are intended to be sown with wheat 

 or planted with corn the year following, will turn up and 

 expose the insects to the inclemency of winter, whereby many 

 of them will be killed, and will also bring them within reach 

 of insect-eating birds. But this seems to be a doubtful rem- 

 edy, against which many objections have been urged.* 



* See ]Mr. Colmaii's Third Report of the Agriculture of Massachusetts, p. 62. 



