THE CLANDESTINE OWLET-MOTH.' 447 



wheat, young pumpkin-plants, young beans, cabbage-plants, 

 and many other field and garden vegetables." " When first 

 disclosed from the eggs, they subsist on the various grasses. 

 They descend in the ground on the approach of severe frosts, 

 and reappear in the spring about half grown. They seek 

 their food in the night or in cloudy weather, and retire 

 before sunrise into the ground, or beneath stones or any 

 substance which can shelter them from the rays of the sun ; 

 here they remain coiled up during the day, except while 

 devouring the food which they generally drag into their 

 places of concealment. Their transformation to pupse oc- 

 curs at different periods, sometimes earlier, sometimes later, 

 according to the forwardness of the season, but usually not 

 much later than the middle of July." " The moths, as 

 well as the larvas, vary much in the depth of their color, 

 from a pale ash to a deep or obscure brown. The ordinary 

 spots of the upper wings of the moth are always connected 

 by a blackish line ; where the color is of the deepest shade 

 those spots are scarcely visible, but when the color is lighter 

 they are very obvious." 



Since the foregoing was written, I have repeatedly ob- 

 tained the same moths from cut-worms here. The latter 

 seem, indeed, to be the most common kind ; but they differ 

 very little from the cut-worms already described. They 

 vary somewhat in color, as remarked by Dr. Melsheimer. 

 Young ones are always more or less distinctly marked above 

 with pale and dark stripes, and are uniformly paler below. 

 The moth is very abundant in the New England States, 

 from the middle of June till the middle or end of August. 

 The fore wings are generally of a dark ash-color, with 

 only a very faint trace of the double transverse wavy bands 

 that are found in most species of Agrotis ; the two ordinary 

 spots are small and narrow, the anterior spot being oblong 

 oval, and connected with the oblique kidney-shaped spot 

 by a longitudinal black line. The hind wings are dirty 

 brownish-white, somewhat darker behind. The head, the 



