The Zoologist — August, 1871. 2697 



grain, as well as the chaffy hiisks with which it is enveloped, perfectly 

 intact, with the exception of the very small aperture through which it 

 escapes. As soon as the catei'pillar is too large for the grain to contain, it 

 introduces itself between the husk and the beard of the ear, in which 

 situation 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 required 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 clmnge 

 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, 

 and now assume the usual habits and appearance of the other Apameas ; 

 for up to this period they have possessed all the characteristics of the 

 caterpillars Leucanias or of young Dianthcecias ; 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 are, to all appearance, 

 genuine Apameas ; they feed almost entirely by night, concealing themselves 

 in or near the ground by day ; they rest in a straight position, but roll 

 theniselves in a compact ring when disturbed 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 partially withdrawn when at rest ; the body is obese and almost uniformly 

 cyUudrical. The colour of the head is pale semi-transpai'eut brown, slightly 

 reticulated with darker brown : there is a rather narrow medic-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 seiies 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 flyiug over the wheat-fields and commencing 

 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.)" — Pp. 300 — 303. 



Edward Newman. 



