6 Bulletin of the New York State Museum. 



Their Habits. 



They are nocturnal in their habits, passing the day in conceal- 

 ment, in holes made by them in the ground among or near the roots 

 of their food-plants, or in other shelter beneath stones^ sticks, 

 rails, decomposing leaves and grass, etc. A few of the subterra- 

 nean species rarely if ever come to the surface, but cut off the tender 

 blades beneath the ground, drawing them in as they are consumed 

 or bearing the excised portion to their retreats to feed upon at 

 leisure. Most of them, however, come forth from the ground after 

 dark (sometimes by day in cloudy and damp weather), and with 

 appetites sharpened by a protracted fast, make vigorous attack 

 upon the young annual plants of the garden or the field, feeding 

 upon their tips, or severing their stalks and destroying far more 

 than they consume. If, during the time of their abundance, search 

 be made for them at night with the aid of a lantern, hundreds of 

 them may be discovered busily occupied in their destructive work* 

 At the approach of day they retire to their hiding places, which 

 may frequently be detected by the hole near the plant, made by 

 them in reentering the ground. 



The time of their greatest injuries is when they are nearly full- 

 grown, in the months of May and June. 



Guenee, in his Histoire Naturelle des Insectes — Species General 

 des Lepidojjteres, vol. v — Noctuelites, i, p. 258, has remarked as 

 follows, upon the appearance and habits of the larvae of the genus 

 Agrotis : 



Smooth, thick, with transparent skin and of dirty colors, furnished 

 with elevated, shining trapezoidal spots, with the plates of the 

 collar and the anus equally shining, and of a horny consistency 

 they resemble worms or larvae of insects far removed from the 

 Lepidoptera. Their manner of living is not less marked. They 

 do not confine themselves to hiding during the day under low 

 plants ; but they bury literally in the earth and among their roots, 

 and when night arrives they do not often leave their tomb, except 

 by projecting so much of the anterior portion of their body as is 

 necessary to grasp their food. Several of the species are very 

 destructive, especially by reason of their abundance, as exclama- 

 tionis, segetum, valligera, tritici, aquilina, obelisca, etc. Their 

 ravages are, however, less serious, by the fact that they usually 

 attack the low plants, as Plantago, Bumex, Taraxacum, and the 

 useless Gramineae. Nevertheless, they are very dangerous guests 

 of the gardens ; it seems, even, that under certain circum- 

 stances they attack plants of very different families, and are not 

 opposed to mounting during the night upon woody vegetation 



