450 



LEPIDOPTEBA. 



paper, winding it conically and firmly above the root, and 

 securing it by a low embankment of earth." 



In the summer of 1851, one of our agricultural news- 

 papers contained an account of certain naked caterpillars, 

 that came out of the ground in the night, and, crawling 

 up the trunks of fruit-trees, devoured the leaves, and re- 

 turned to conceal themselves in the ground before morning.* 

 Perhaps these depredators were the same as the following. 

 Roses, currant-bushes, and other shrubs, and even young 

 trees, often lose their tender shoots, by having them cut 

 off and devoured during the night. This is the work of 

 a naked caterpillar, which generally grows to a larger size 

 than the common cut-worm, and, like the latter, may be 

 found by digging at the root of the plant. One of these 

 spoilers, which was turned out of his burrow early in June, 

 measured an inch and a half in length. His body was 

 livid or brownish and shining above, with a chestnut-col- 

 ored head, and a horny spot of the same color on the top 

 of the first and last rings. A few minute dots, producing 

 very short inconspicuous hairs, were regularly disposed upon 

 his body. This caterpillar changed to a chrysalis in the 



ground, and was trans- 

 formed to a moth (Fig. 

 222) on the 1st of July. 

 The moth very often en- 

 ters houses in the even- 

 ing, during the months 

 of July and August, and, 

 in its restrained flight, 

 keeps bobbing against the ceiling and walls. When it 

 alights, it sits with its wings sloping in the form of a steep 

 roof. It is easily distinguished by its Spanish-brown upper 

 wings, marked with a large pale kidney-spot, and a broad 

 wavy blue-gray band near the end. Its eyes when living 

 shine like coals of fire. It has been described by mistake 



* See Massachusetts Ploughman for June 28, 1861. 



Fig. 222. 



