THE AGROTIDIANS. 441 



pale buff or yellowish white, with a central spot, and a band 

 behind it, of a brownish color. The head is brown ; the 

 thorax is tawny yellow, with a brown tuft ; and the edges of 

 the collar and of the shoulder-covers are brown. The wings 

 expand rather more than one inch and a half. I have what 

 appear to be varieties of this moth, expanding one inch and 

 three eighths, with three or four white dots around the kid- 



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ney-spot, and the ordinary round spot wholly white. 



Numerous complaints have been made of the ravages of 

 cut-worms among corn, wheat, grass, and other vegetables, 

 in various parts of the country. After a tiresome search 

 through many of our agricultural publications, I have become 

 convinced that these insects and their history are not yet 

 known to some of the very persons who are said to have 

 suffered from their depredations. Various cut-worms, or 

 more properly subterranean caterpillars, wire-worms, or lull, 

 and grub-worms, or the young of May-beetles, are often con- 

 founded together or mistaken for each other ; sometimes 



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their names are interchanged, and sometimes the same name 

 is given to each and all of these different animals. Hence 

 the remedies that are successful in some instances are entirely 

 useless in others. The name of cut-worm seems originally 

 to have been given to certain caterpillars that live in the 

 ground about the roots of plants, but come up in the night, 

 and cut off and devour the tender stems and lower leaves of 

 young cabbages, beans, corn, and other herbaceous plants. 

 These subterranean caterpillars are finally transformed to 

 moths belonging to a group which may be called Agrotidians 

 (AGROTIDIDJE), from a word signifying rustic, or pertaining 

 to the fields. Some of these rustic moths fly by day, and 

 may be found in the fields, especially in the autumn, sucking 

 the honey of flowers ; others are on the wing only at night, 

 and during the day lie concealed in chinks of walls and other 

 dark places. Their wings are nearly horizontal when closed, 

 the upper pair completely covering the lower wings, and 

 often overlapping a little on their inner edges, thus favoring 

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