J 54 Entomology. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Art. XIII. Description of the Phalaena Devastator^ {the 

 Insect that produces the Cut-worm,) communicated for 

 the American Journal of Science, ^c. by Mr. John P. 

 Brace, of Litchfield, Conn. 



jL his moth, whose larva is one of our most destructive ene- 

 mies, belongs to the Linnaean family noctua, in the genus pha- 

 laena. Its specific characters are as follow : Wings incum- 

 bent and horizontal, when at rest ; body long and thin ; tho- 

 rax thick, but not crested ; head small ; eyes prominent and 

 black ; antennae setacious, gradually lessening towards extre- 

 mities, and shghtly ciliated ; palpi two, flat, broad in the mid- 

 dle, and very hairy ; tongue rolled up between them,, not very 

 prominent ; clypeus small, legs long, small and hairy ; wings 

 long as body ; under wings shortest ; colour a dark silvery 

 gray, with transverse dotted bands of black on upper wings. 

 The insect lays its eggs In the commencement of autumn, at 

 the roots of trees and near the ground : they are hatched early 

 in May. The habits of the cut-worm have been often and 

 fully detailed. They eat almost all kinds of vegetables, pre- 

 ferring beans, cabbages, and corn. They continue in this 

 state about four weeks ; they then cast their skin and enter 

 the pupa state, under ground. This is a crustaceous cover- 

 ing, fitted to the parts of the future insect. In this they con- 

 tinue for four weeks longer, and come out in the fly, or insect 

 state, about the middle of July. All those chrysalids that I 

 exposed to the sun, died ; and all those that were kept cool 

 under earth, produced an insect : hence I infer, that the heat 

 of the sun will kill the chrysalids. If, then, the ground be 

 ploughed about the first of July, many of those insects might 

 be destroyed, and the destruction of the productions of the 

 next year prevented ; for the pupa is never more than a few 

 inches under ground. 



