Notes on Insects. 161* 



or piipa3, of many have no doubt been carried across the seas by 

 ships, in the soil round the roots of plants, &c , exported from one 

 part of the world to another ; and have thus been introduced into 

 countries of which they were not originally natives, and some 

 species finding suitable food and climate, have become naturalized, 

 whilst others not so favourably situated, occur but rarely in the 

 countries to which they have been transported. As an example 

 of the first of these two cases I will instance Agrotis suffusa, which 

 is of wide world distribution, and is tolerably numerous about 

 Montreal, coming to sugared trees on the Mountain, at the end of 

 September and beginning of October ; it is a common species in 

 England, appearing there also in September and October , it 

 frequents Ivy-blossoms, &c., and hybernating comes forth a second 

 time in the early spring, and may then be taken at sallow-blossoms 

 and sugared trees ; the larva feeds on the roots of grasses, but is 

 not so destructive as some of the other species, 



Agrotis suhgothica is a good illustration of the second case, it is 

 a very abundant species round Montreal, appearing in July and 

 continuing till late in the autumn. It frequently flies in at the 

 open windows during the summer evenings, attracted by the lights 

 in the rooms. It is very likely produced from these Red-headed 

 Cutworms, but I do not know for certain, as I have never had 

 time or opportunity to trace it through its various transformations. 

 It has occurred a few- times in England, but so rarely that it is 

 marked as a doubtful native in the British Museum Catalogue of 

 British Lepidoptera, and is not now admitted into the British Lists. 

 Agrotis segetum, a common English species, is sometimes very de- 

 structive in that countrj^ to young wheat, of which it devours the 

 roots in autumn and spring. Mr. H. Doubleday says it is very 

 troublesome in gardens, often destroying Anemonies,and eating into 

 the roots of Dahlias, &c. It is the larva of this or of one of the 

 closely allied species which often injures the turnip crops, in the 

 autumn to a very great extent, in different parts of England. — See 

 Humphrey and Westwood's British Moths, p. 116. It is not only 

 the genus Agrotis, however, which is so destructive to the farmers 

 crops, for several allied genera with similar habits, such as 

 Charseas, Cerapteryx, and Graphiphora, are capable of inflicting 

 severe injury. What devastation Cera-pteryx graminis, a European 

 species, can cause in grass lands, the following extracts from the 

 Avork I have just mentioned will show : — " This Moth appears in 

 July and August, occasionally in great numbers in certain 



