NOCTUAS. 



503 



very short branch : the hind wings are more 

 dingy than the fore wings, but of very similar 

 tint : the head and thorax are ochreous-brown ; 

 the body rather pale. 



The EGGS are laid on the ears of wheat in 

 little clustei'S, generally in sufficient number to 

 supply one or more CATERPI LLARS when hatched 

 to every grain in the ear ; then they penetrate 

 the grains, and consume the contained flour 

 as soon as it has commenced to become solid, 

 leaving the cuticle of the grain, as well as the 

 chaffy husks with which it is enveloped, per- 

 fectly intact, with the exception of the very 

 small aperture through which it escapes. As 

 soon as the caterpillar is too large for the grain 

 to contain, it introduces itself between the 

 husk and the beard of the ear, in which situa- 

 tion it cannot be detected without difficulty, 

 being exactly similar in colour : this occurs at 

 harvest-time. It then allows itself to be 

 hidden in the sheaves, and is housed with the 

 corn : if we examine the floor of the barn 

 where the wheat is threshed, we find these 

 caterpillars, then about the thickness of a 

 straw, expelled by the stroke of the flail, 

 crawling about in multitudes. The time has 

 now arrived when its destructive propensities 

 have ceased : the grains have acquired the re- 

 quired hardness, and the lower temperature of 

 approaching winter serving to benumb the 

 caterpillars, each constructs a little cocoon in 

 which to pass the cold season. No sooner has 

 the spring arrived, bringing with it^a rapid 

 vegetation, than they change their manner of 

 life altogether; they forsake the granaries and 

 barns, and, wandering into the fields and 

 hedge-rows, attack and devour the roots and 

 lower leaves of many herbaceous plants ; they 

 still grow somewhat slowly, aid now assume 

 the usual habits and appearance of the other 

 Apameas ; for up to this perod they have pos- 

 sessed all the characteristics of the caterpillars 

 Leucanias or of young DiantJiecias ; so true it 

 is that the food and economy of caterpillars 

 exercise a great influence on their forms as 

 well as colours. They now attain their full 

 size, and ai'e to all appearance, genuine 

 Apameas ; they feed almost entii-ely by night, 

 concealing themselves in or near the ground 



by day ; they rest in a straight position, but 

 roll themselves in a compact ring when dis- 

 t\irbed or annoyed. The head is shining, and 

 rather narrower than the second segment into 

 which it is partially withdrawn when at rest ; 

 the body is obese and almost uniformly cylin- 

 drical. The colour of the head is pale semi- 

 transparent brown, slightly reticulated with 

 darker brown : there is a rather narrow medio- 

 dorsal stripe of a dull yellow colour, and a 

 similarly-coloured lateral stripe on each side, 

 the interspace being occupied by a darker 

 ground-colour, interrupted by a longitudinal 

 series of black spots ; the spiracles are black, 

 and situated in a palish stripe of a dingy white, 

 the ventral area and claspers being nearly of 

 the same colour. In this state the caterpillar 

 finally buries itself in the ground in the month 

 of March, and forming an earthen cell rather 

 than cocoon, changes to a brown shining 



CHRYSALIS. 



The MOTH appears on the wing at the end of 

 May and during June : the females may then 

 be seen flying over the wheat-fields and com- 

 mencing the work of destruction by depositing 

 their eggs in the ears. It is but too common 

 everywhere, and is one of the most destructive 

 of all our Noctuas. (The scientific name is 

 Apamea basilinea.) 



502. The Union Rustic (Apamea connexa). 



502. THE UNION RUSTIC. The antennae 

 are simple in both sexes, but rather stouter in 

 the male ; the palpi are porrected and very 

 slender at the tips : the colour of the fore 

 wings is gray, with a median band which is 

 altogether darker than the ground colour, but 

 more especially so towards the inner margin 

 where the bands are contracted, and tlie dark 

 colour forms a decided blotch ; the costal 

 portion of the band includes the two discoidal 

 spots ; the orbicular is clearly defined, it has a 

 gray circumscription and a clouded median 



