244 ORDER LEPIDOPTERA. 



Agrotib . (Plate xlv, fig. 11.) 



Ck>lor dusky brown. Forewings dusky or blackish, especially along the costal edge : one 

 half of the subcostal base is blackish ; and, beyond the middle, this dusky subcostal 

 band extends to\rards the inner mai^in, forming a partial transverse band : apical 

 and marginal area light brown and silky, of the same color as the area of the disc. 

 Hindwings white with a pinkish hue in certain lights, silky and eiliate : beneath, 

 quite pale, and without markings. Body dusky, and as dark as the forewings : the 

 venter is slightly ferruginous, and terminates in a short brush. Expanse of wing, 

 two inches. 

 This is one of the common species of ^grotis in Western Massachusetts and Eastern 

 New- York. 



Agrotis . ( Plate xlv, fig. 2.) 



Color mottled gray : thorax and head brown. Forewings gray at the base : in the middle, 

 resting upon the inner margin, is a large quadrangular spot of a cinnamon-brown, 

 beyond which is a broad transverse grayish green band ; margin brown : costal mar- 

 gin mottled with gray and brown, with an intermixture of short slender transverse 

 lines. Hindwings smoky, especially upon the posterior and inner margin : costa 

 pearly and yellowish white, beneath smoky and pearly. Hindwing beneath marked 

 ■with a central black dot. Expanse of wing, two inches. 

 A common species in Western Massachusetts. 



Agrotis? . (Plate xlv, fig. 10.) 



Color of the thorax black, from which a longitudinal band extends upon the forewing, 

 reaching its middle ; the extreme end, however, is separated from it by a small space 

 of gray. Costa black in front : outer margin banded transversely by two dusky white 

 bands, between which are broader bands of dusky brown. Hindwings pearly white. 

 Abdomen whitish, or of the color of the hindwings. 



Noctuidae. 



The antennae of the insects of this large family are mostly simple : the bodies are thick, 

 stout and strong ; their wings are of a moderate length, and strengthed by their nervures, 

 and their tongues are long. The wings, when not in use, are deflexed upon their sides, and 

 the body is clothed with scales rather than wool or hair. The majority of the larvse of 

 the different genera are naked, and have sixteen feet, though in some the second ventral 

 pair, in others the first ventral pair, are wanting : they undergo transformation under 

 /ground, and form cocoons of silk in which particles of sand are often glued. The moth 



