NOCTU^LIT^. 



305 



We have received from Mr. Sanborn a singular caterpillar 

 allied to this genus (Fig. 236), which is figured in the Harris 

 Correspondence as Acronycta acris? var. Americana. "It is 

 greenish brown," according to Harris, "each segment above 

 with a transverse oval greenish yellow spot ; the body is beset 

 with a few long black bristles, dilated at the end, which do not 

 grow, as usual, from small warts ; 

 there are no long bristles on 

 the second and third thoracic, 

 or on the tenth abdominal rings. 

 It moves very quickly, and rests 

 with the fore part of the body rig. 236. 



bent sideways. The chrysalis was found under a log fastened 

 to another with a few threads. The moth appeared June 28th." 

 In Leucania the fore-wings are short, the outer margin nearly 

 straight, while the hind wings are usually white. Leucania 

 unipuncta Haworth (Plate 8, fig. 2; a, larva) is the "Army- 

 worm" of the Northern States. Its larva is smooth, cylindri- 

 cal, tapering rapidly towards each end, and striped with fine, 

 dark, longitudinal lines. It feeds on grasses, and in certain 

 years has greatly ravaged wheat fields. It hides by day among 

 tufts of grass. The moth is rusty, grayish brown, peppered 

 with black scales, and with an oblique row of about ten black 

 dots running towards the apex, and a white discal spot. It 

 expands a little over one and a half inches. It constructs, in 

 the middle of August, a rude earthen 

 cocoon, or cell of dry grass. The moth 

 appears the last of August northwards. 

 Six species of Ichneumon, and one of 

 Tachina, prey upon this species. To pre- 

 vent the too great accumulation of this 

 very destructive caterpillar, the grass land 

 should be burnt over in autumn. When on the march their 

 armies may be kept out by ditching, and hogs and fowl should 

 be turned into fields during the middle of August, while they 

 are transforming, to prevent their attacks the succeeding year. 

 Agrotis, the Dart-moth, is known by its crested thorax ; 

 the palpi are broad and truncated, level with the front, and 

 the antennae are either somewhat pectinated or distinctly cili- 

 20 



Fig. 337. 



