﻿416 



LEPIDOPTERA 



leaves of aspen and lives between them, 

 Noctuid larvae When about to pupate 

 soft wood to change to a pupa, Fig. 205 ; 

 tlir specimen represented closed the hole 

 of entry by placing two separate doors 

 of silk across the burrow, as shown at d. 

 The anal armature of this pupa is ter- 

 minated by a curious transverse process. 

 The systematic position of this inter- 



an unusual habit for 

 it bores into bark or 



Fig. 204. — Brephos notha. Adult larva. 





Fig. "205. — Brephos notha. A. 

 Pupa, ventral aspect ; B, 

 extremity of body, magni- 

 fied ; C. the pupa in wood ; 

 (/, diaphragms constructed 

 by the larva. 



esting Insect is very uncertain: Meyrick and others associate it 

 with the < leometridae. 



The larva of L&mania mil punctata is the notorious Army- 

 worm that commits great ravages on grass and corn in North 

 America. This species sometimes increases in numbers to a con- 

 siderable extent without being observed, owing to the retiring 

 habits of the larvae; when, however, the increase of numbers 

 has been so great that food becomes scarce, or for some other 

 cause — for the scarcity of food is supposed not to be the only 

 reason — the larvae become gregarious, and migrate in enormous 

 swarms: whence its popular name. The Cotton-worm, Aletia 

 xylinae is even more notorious on account of its ravages. Riley 

 states 1 that in bad years the mischief it commits on the cotton 

 crop causes a loss of £6,000,000, and that for a period 

 of fourteen successive years the annual loss averaged about 

 £3,000,000. This caterpillar strips the cotton plants of all but 

 their branches. It is assisted in its work by another highly 

 destructive Noctuid caterpillar, the Boll-worm, or larva of 

 Heliothis armigera, which bores into the buds and pods. This 

 1 Fourth Rep. U.S Kill. Commission, 1S85, p. 3. 



