AGROTIS CORTIOEA. 11 



of the various fleshy-leaved plants offered to it, at 

 first eating only the cuticle, but soon making holes in the 

 leaves of Chenopodium album, Polygonum, clover, etc., 

 but when the length of half an inch, or thereabouts, 

 had been attained, and the usual Agrotis appearance 

 put on, it began to burrow in the loose soil, hiding by 

 day, and coming out to feed at night. Later in the 

 year, and again in the spring, the food supplied was 

 dock, mullein, hollyhock, and slices of carrot ; and in 

 dull weather, if fresh food was put on the surface of 

 the soil, and shaded from the light by leaves thrown 

 over it, we found it would be eaten as readily by day 

 as by night. From the time the larva is about half an 

 inch in length, up to about an inch, its colour is 

 ochreous, with a dark double dorsal line, and two 

 lines on each side ; the usual warts small and dark 

 brown. 



After its final moult, it comes out at first very much 

 darker than before, with quite a noticeable appearance 

 of sootiness over it ; all the lines being purplish -black, 

 and much diffused ; the skin also presents quite a 

 rough surface, and although this is afterwards partly 

 lost, it yet remains as a distinguishing feature to 

 the end. 



When full-grown, the larva is one and three- eighths 

 to one and five-eighths inches in length, according to 

 measurement in repose or motion; rather thick in 

 proportion, cylindrical, and rugose ; all the legs short 

 and placed well under the body ; in fact, it much 

 resembles A. segetum, save in the rugosity, and in the 

 further distinction, that whereas the back in A. segetum 

 is coloured differently from the sides, in A. corticea the 

 colour is spread uniformly over both alike ; the ground 

 colour then of the full-grown larva is brownish-grey, 

 finely freckled with a rather darker tint of the same ; 

 the belly and pro-legs with a slight greenish tinge, and 

 unfreckled ; the dorsal vessel is of the ground colour, 

 scarcely paler, enclosed within two lines of darker 

 brown. The subdorsal is a dark line of grey -brown, 



