352 LEPIDOPTERA. 



In the collection of Dr. P. B. Mason at Burton-on-Trent 

 are two specimens, both evidently old and rather carelessly- 

 set. One of these is ticketed as from the collection of Mr. 

 Kaddon, and taken near Barnstaple ; the other is from the 

 cabinet of the late Mr. Edwin Brown. That these are not 

 A. tritici, and that they arc A. suhr/ofhica, is fully demonstrated 

 by their accurate agreement with the figures of Stephens and 

 Wood, as well as with Haworth's description. 



The species is, however, North American, as was pointed 

 out long ago by the late Mr. Henry Doubleday ; and this is 

 further proved by the agreement, both of figures and moths, 

 with photographs of y4. stibr/othica, taken from North American 

 specimens and furnished by Mr. M. V. Slingerland, of 

 Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Dr. Mason's two 

 specimens have also been examined and recognised by Mr. 

 W. Mansbridge, who has spent some years in the United 

 States, and has found the moth abundantly in that country. 

 He informs me that its larva is there well known as the Corn 

 boll-worm, and that it feeds in the ears of maize, inhabiting 

 the cob or envelope. Also that the moth sometimes abounds 

 in granaries in April and May, hiding itself under any 

 articles thrown upon the ground, such as matting, or under 

 boarding, and creeping closely into any small crevice in the 

 woodwork. Professor Smith states that it inhabits the United 

 States and Canada, occurring in the more northern States in 

 July and September, but in Colorado in August. So plentiful 

 is it in the State of New York that 2382 specimens were 

 captured, in one season, at a series of six experimental trap- 

 lanterns set up on the University farm at Ithaca, for the 

 purpose of testing the value of the lamps in the destruction 

 of noxious insects. The effectiveness of this wholesale 

 slauo-hter was, however, diminished by the circumstance that 

 of the whole number of moths of this species destroyed, 2240 

 were males and only 142 females. No other species was 

 captured in equal abundance. 



Mr. Doubleday was of opinion that the supposed British 



