THE STALK-BORER : ITS DESCRIPTION". ■ 113 



The Family of Noctuidse. 



The moth belongs to the Noctuidm,* or owlet-moths as sometimes 

 popuhirly called, from their habit of coming abroad from their hiding 

 places after dark to feed : a few of them, howevei*, fly by day. The 

 family is quite an extensive one, and although it has been but recently 

 studied in this country, over fourteen hundred species have already 

 been described-! Their caterpillars are among the most obnoxious 

 pests of the agriculturist, as for example, the many species of ** cut- 

 worms." The moths are stout-bodied, with strong-veined wings, enab- 

 ling them to fly quite swiftly. With the exception of the Catocalas 

 (beautiful underwings) and some of the allied genera, as a rule, they 

 are so plain in appearance, as rarely to attract attention. 



Description of the Moth and Caterpillar. 



O.nitela is one of the very plain moths, being without any conspicuous 

 markings. It is shown in Fig. 26 at 1. It measures about one inch and 



a half in expanse. Its wings 

 are of a wood-brown color, 

 sprinkled with yellowish 

 dots. The only conspicuous 

 ornamentation is a yellow- 

 ish white line at the outer 

 „ „^ rp,^ * n K n n third of the front winces. 



Fig. 2G. — The stalk-borer, Gortyna nitela Guen. '=> * 



The moth and its caterpillar. (Riley.) bent at nearly a right-augle, 



near the front margin ; between tliis line and the outer border the 

 wing 13 paler. 



The caterpillar, shown at 2, measures over one inch long when fully 

 grown. It is purplish-brown above, with three Avhite lines on the back, 

 of which the central one is continuous, and the other two interrupted 

 from the fourth to the seventh segments inclusive. The first two seg- 

 ments have a white stripe on their sides, and above the third and 

 fourth fleshy legs (prologs) there is another white stripe. The head and 

 a corneous plate on the top of the first and last segments are shining 

 yellow, bordered on the sides with black. In its walking, which is quite 

 rapid, the caterpillar arches its back somewhat like the Geometridm 

 (measuring worms), as it docs not use its first pair of prolegs. 



In the Harris Entomolngical Correspondence {he. cit.), a detailed 

 description of this caterpillar is given. It is described under date of 

 July 8th, 1848, as a caterpillar on potato-stalks — not referred to any 



*XocTU,« Linn, (of Grote) ; NocTUyELiT.E Latr. (of Packard) ; Nocthelites (of Guen6e) ; 

 NocToiD/E Stephens. 



tThe New Check-List of North American Moths [north of Mexico], by A. R. Grote, con- 

 tains 1420 species of " Noctuse." 



15 



