19 



The moth (Plate II, fig. 12) measures two inches with its 

 wings sjiread. It is of a brownish grey color, the male paler 

 than the female. The male also has large tufts of yellowish 

 hairs at the apex of the abdomen. The fore wings have some 

 darker markings, viz., a roundish area a little anterior of the 

 middle of the wing, an oval ring a little nearer to the base, a 

 zigzag line across the wing about one-third the distance from 

 the base, another zigzag line about three-fourths from the base, 

 a row of triangular dots at termen. Hind wdngs nearly uniform 

 very pale brown, a little darker on the reins. 



THE BLACK CUTWORM. 



Agrotis ijpsiJon (Rottenburg). 

 Plate II, figs. 1, 2. 



"Head and thorax red-brown, the latter suffused with fuscous; 

 frons with blackish bar above; back of head with two black spots; 

 tegulae with brown and black medial band; pectus whitish; tibiae 

 and tarsi ochreous white and black; abdomen grey-brown. Fore- 

 wing ochreous irrorated with brown; the costal area suffused with 

 fuscous brown, and often the whole wing to the postmedial line; 

 a double, waved, subbasal line from costa to the submedian fold; a 

 double, waved antemedial line dentate inwards on median nervure 

 and vein 1 and outwards above inner margin; claviform moderate 

 or small, defined by black; orbicular and reniform defined by black 

 and with fuscous centres, the fomer small, elliptical, or with its 

 outer edge produced to a point, the latter with wedge-shaped black 

 spot from its outer edge; an indistinct dentate medial line; a double 

 minutely dentate postmedial line produced to points on the veins, 

 bent outwards below costa, excurved to vein 4, then incurved; a 

 subterminal series of pale and black dentate marks, those above 

 veins 4, 5 with the black on their inner side stronger and some 

 fuscous suffusion on their outer; the veins towards termen with 

 dark streaks; a terminal series of points. Hind wing semihyaline 

 white, the veins, costal and inner areas, and termen tinged with 

 brown, strongly in female and in the New Zealand form." [Hamp- 

 son. Catalogue of the Lepidoptera, British Museum, IV, p. 368, 

 1903]. 



This is a well-known garden cutworm throughout the United 

 States. It ranges in America from Hudson Bay south to Uru- 

 guay; is common in Europe; also occurs in northern and 

 southern Africa, India, China, Japan, Java, Australia and 

 ISTew Zealand. It is a typical cutworm in its feeding habits, 



