196 



were laid in the Spring, there is no reason, why they 

 should not be found. Second, — they are scarcely ever 

 found in wheat or rye, except when they have travelled 

 from grass meadows. Third, — No one ever saw the second 

 brood, and the grasses are too hard for them to cat when 

 they would be hatched. Fourth, — they would form an ex- 

 ception to the rule among Nocluids which are single brooded. 

 I liave not sufficient data to decide between the two opin- 

 ions, but it seems more probable that Mr. Walsh is right. 



He thinks that the eggs are laid soon after the moths 

 leave the pupje, and remain on the stems of grass near the 

 root, until the following summer or spring ; the caterpillar 

 gets its growth in four or five weeks, doing the principal 

 damage in the last week of its larval life. Those that I 

 saw working at Middleboro' mounted the oat stalks and eat 

 the blade of the leaf, as far as the part that sheathes the 

 stem, thus stripping the whole field of leaves, and making 

 it look like a plantation of canes ; they also tried the heads 

 but found them unpalatable, so they eat but few, though 

 they cut off very many and allowed them to drop, to such, 

 an extent that the ground was strewed with them. They 

 fed morning, evening and night, protecting themselves from 

 the hot sun at mid-day, coiled up under leaves or loose 

 earth at the bottom of the stalks. I have not heard of their 

 eating any plants except those which belong to the family 

 of grasses and the delicate shoots of the turnips. When 

 they have stripped one field, they march to another. In the 

 Prairie Farmer, July 4th, 1861, we find the following de- 

 scription of their march. 



" An army of them was observed to travel sixty yards in. 

 two hours, in an effort to get around a ditch. They began 

 to travel from the infected districts between two and three 

 o'clock, P.M. Toward sundown the tide of travel was 

 retrograde. They did not travel at night. They fed chiefly 

 by night, and in the forenoon. As to their number, they 

 have been seen moving from one field to another three tiers 

 deep. A ditch has been filled with them to the depth of 

 three inches in half an hour^ 



When full grown they measure about 1.5 inches in 

 length ; the head is light brown, as large as the next seg- 



