308 



LEPIDOPTERA. 



in lime or ashes. Tobacco, soap and other dihited washes do 

 not even provoke them ; hut a tin tube, six inches in length, 

 opened on one side and closed around the base of the tree, fit- 

 ting close and entering at the lower end an inch into the 

 earth, is what the law3^ers would term an effectual estoppel to 

 further proceedings. 



. " If the dwarf tree branches so low from the ground as not to 

 leave six inches clear of trunk between the limbs and ground, 

 the limbs must be sacrificed to save the tree, as in two nights 

 four or five of these pests will fully and effectually strip a four 

 or five year old dwarf of every fruit and wood bud, and often 

 when the tree is green utterly denude it of its foliage. I look 

 upon them as an enemy to the orchard more fatal than the can- 

 ker worm when left to themselves, but fortunately' for man- 

 kind, more surely headed off." 



]VIr. Riley has named this cut-worm Agrotis Cochrani (Fig. 



240, and larva) and de- 

 scribes the larva which, 

 according to the obser- 

 vations of J. Townley 

 of Marquette, "Wis., 

 also ascends standard 

 trees, not confining 

 ^'o- ^*°- its injuries to dwarf 



trees. The cut-worm is 1.07 inches in length. "It is slightly 

 shagreened and the general color is of a dingy ash gray, with 

 lighter or darker shadings. The back is light, inclining to flesh 

 color with a darker dingy line along the dorsum. The sides, 

 particularly along the subdorsal line, are of a darker shade. 

 On each segment there are eight small, black, shin}-, slightly 

 elevated points, having the appearance of black sealing-wax, 

 from each of which originates a small black bristle. The stig- 

 mata are of the same black color and one of the black spots is 

 placed quite close to them anteriorly. The head is shin}^ and 

 of the same dingy color, with two darker marks ; thick and 

 almost joining at the upper surface, becoming thinner below 

 and diverging towards the palpi. The upper surface of the 

 first segment is also shiny like the head. The ventral region is 

 of the same dingy color, but lighter, having a greenish tinge 



