1861. 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMEK. 



271 



cultivation ihe past season. In some cases they 

 appeared first in wheat fields and when large 

 enough travcL d to the a'djoining mpadow (this 

 •was the cas*» on the farm of our County Judge). 

 In many places where there were no meadows 

 they appea-ed in the wheat fields. 



Af.er hitchingout they immediately commence 

 eating, sclectit.g out the grasses and wheat which 

 they seem to prefer. When they have fittained 

 half their growth, if their food becomes scarce 

 they begin their march in search of a more plen- 

 tiful region. Generaly all marching in one di- 

 rection, though sometimes a portion of those in 

 a field Will march in one direction while the 

 other portion goes in another. Hot sunshine also 

 appears to c".use them to move sooner than they 

 would otherwise do. They eat off the leaves of tim- 

 othy and other grasses leaving the stems, except 

 pressed to eat these from hunger, but they will 

 abandon them for the weeds even eating tbe May- 

 weed or " dog fennel " in preference. Of wheat 

 they eat the leave?, seldom attacking the heads 

 and never the stems. But when they attack oats 

 or corn they mow it down as they go close to the 

 ground. Clover they avoid, never eating it un~ 

 less driven to it by extreme hunger. Their time 

 of eating depend-? more or less upon their num- 

 berr!, quantity of food and state of the weather. 

 If the w ather is pleasant and not cloudy and 

 the worms not very numerous and food plenty 

 they g nerally feed at night or early in the morn- 

 ing and late in the evening-. If the weather is 

 cloudy and cool they feed throughout the day. — 

 If their number is excessive the sun must be quite 

 warm before it drives them to their hiding places 

 beneath the clods and rubbish. 



Having completed their term of existence in 

 the larva state, they abandon their food and 

 crawl lapidly about hither and yonder and finally 

 descend into the earth a short distance, or crawl 

 under clods, rails, etc , where they enter upon the 

 second stage ot their lives called the pupa or 

 chrysalis state. The chrysalides or pupa vary in 

 length from something less than half a-i inch to 

 sometbicg over five-eighths, and are of a deep 

 che-mut or mahogany red. To undergo this 

 change they do not enclose themselves in cocoons 

 but simply bury themselves in the ground or tide 

 Under s me clod or stick, and having thrown off 

 their laivje fkins remain as naked pupse until the 

 moth hatches out. How long they remain in this 

 state is a question of doubt. Dr. Walsh informs 

 ine (hat he is of opinion their normal habit is to 

 remain in this state unul the next spring. I say 

 "normal," for he admits the fact that some do 



hatch out during the summer, but suppoi.es these 

 are exceptions to their proper habit, as is the 

 case with other species of the order. Although 

 I at first differed wtth him and in the Prairie 

 Farmer advanced a rather diflTerent theory, yet I 

 am somewhat inclined to yield to hi.% view. Rea- 

 sons: Ooly a portion of the chrysalides I have 

 caged have hatched out, loss than half. If those 

 in the fields had hatched out the '• miller " would 

 be abunda t, which is not the case. As to this 

 part of their history I am not yet satisfied with 

 any of the theories advanced. 



Although Dr. Fitch makes this species Leuca- 

 nia unipuncta, therely separating it some dis- 

 tance from the genus Agrotis, yet that the species 

 we have here is closely allied to the *Affrottdtdos 

 there can be no doubt. And therefore to tLrow 

 ]i;iht on our species I will quote from some ento- 

 mological writers in regard to the history of some 

 species ot this genus or that are closely allie^ia 

 habits and nature. 



Dr. Melsheimer in a letter to Dr. Harris (Inj. 

 Ins. 346) makes the following remarks : 



'■ There are several speci s of .4^ro^(«, the lar- 

 vae of l^hich a'e injurious to cuUuary plants; 

 but the chief culprit with us i* the same as that 

 which is destructive to young maize. The c»rn 

 cut- worm make their appearance in great numbert 

 at irregdar periods, and confine t«.em<eivei in 

 their deiastations to no particular vegetables, all 

 that are suc*-ulent being relished by these innis- 

 crirainate devourt-rs ; but, if their choice is not 

 limite 1, they prefer maize plants when not more than 

 a few inches above the earth, early sivm buck- 

 wheat, young pumpkin plants, young beans, cab- 

 bage plants, and many other field and garden 

 vegetables. When first disclosed from the eggs 

 they sub eist on the various grasses, i hey descend 

 into the ground on ihe approach of severe troets 

 and reappear in the spring about halt gown. — 

 They seek their food in t .e night or in cloudy 

 weather, and retire before tunrlse into the 

 ground, or beneath stores or any subs-tance 

 which can shel er them from the raysot the sun,- 

 here they remain coiled up during the d^ij ex- 

 cept while devouring the food which they gener- 

 ally drag into tneir places of concahi ent Their 

 transformations to pupse occurs at different periods, 

 sometimes earlier, oometimes later, accoriiinq to the 

 forwardness of the scrson, but usually not much 

 later than the middle of the season." 



The words I have ita'ized show h' w near the 

 two species agree in habits, We must also recol- 

 lect that the latitude of Dr. Melsheim r was Do- 

 ver, Pa. Dr. Harris, in speaking of this same 

 species which he names Noctua {Agrotis) clandes- 

 tina says of the larvae, '• youi g onr-s aie nlways 

 more or less distinctly marked above w th pale 

 and dark stripes, and are uniformly paler belnw." 

 The inference to be drawn from th^^se wo ds ac- 



