40 



and very conspicious. There is a broad wavy pearl-grey or blue-grey band across the 

 hinder part of the fore wings, and also a narrow wavy band between the oval spot and 

 the shoulder. The hind wings are ash-coloured, with brownish margins, and have a pale 

 border, and a central blackish spot underneath. The body is brown and rust-red 

 Harris). The moth flies at night and often enters lighted rooms in the evening. 



Agrotis telifera. — Harris. 



The Lance Rustic — Larva — The Greasy Cut-worm. — Riley. 



Very common in Canada, from June until October ; and also at least as far west as 

 Missouri. 



The greasy cut-worm, when full-grown is about one inch and a half in length, and 

 generally of a dull leaden brown, sometimes inclining to black. It has a faint dirty 

 yellowish line along the back, a more distinct one on each side, and below each of these, 

 two other indistinct pale lines. It has also eight or nine black shiny spots on each 

 segment ; the head is light brown with a dark spot on each side, and dark brown above, 

 and the shield on neck is dark brown, except a stripe above on each side. The sides and 

 posterior portions of the body are studded with short white bristles. 



This worm is one of the most injurious of its kind, possessing the cutting propensity 

 in a very marked degree. In the Western States it is extremely destructive to corn, 

 tomatoes, tobacco, and many other cultivated plants, cutting them off about an inch above 

 the ground, and attacking plants of quite a large growth. It seems to act almost from 

 mere wantonness, one worm often ruining several plants in a single night, by severing 

 them one after the other. It is a very general feeder, and will thrive on apple or grape 

 leaves, when it can get nothing else. 



The moth, figure 3, (after Riley) first described by Harris,, 

 is rather a large insect, being about one and a half inches in 

 expanse. It closely resembles the Agrotis suffusa of Europe,, 

 so much so that Mr. Norman in his list of Canadian Noctuidae 

 (Can. Ent. 1875) calls it by the latter name. (Mr Grote, 

 in his Check List, places both these names as synonyms, and 

 calls the moth Agrotis ypsilon, Rott.) The following is the 

 description by Harris : — The fore wings are light brown, 

 shaded with dark brown along the outer thick edge ; and in 

 Fig. 3. the middle also in the female ; these wings are divided into 



three nearly equal parts by two transverse bands, each composed of two wavy dark brown 

 lines ; in the middle space are situated the two ordinary spots, together with a third oval 

 spot, which touches the anterior band ; these spots ■ are encircled with dark brown, and 

 the kidney spot bears a dark-brown lance-shaped mark on its hinder part ; (whence the 

 name of the moth), the hindmost third of the wing is crossed by a broad pale brown band, 

 and is ornamented by a narrow wavy or festooned line, and several small blackish spots 

 near the margin. The hind wings are pearly white, and semi-transparent, shaded behind 

 and veined with dusky brown. 



Mr. Riley states that he found the worms two thirds grown on the 22nd of May, and 

 that it becomes a chrysalis at the end of that month, though the moth does not make its 

 appearancce (in Missouri) until July. Mr. Norman's note on the species is : "Swarming 

 at sugar, flowers and light, from 2nd June until October." I myself took a fine fresh 

 specimen this year at Montreal, on the 1st October, at sugar. These facts seem to indi- 

 late that there are two broods of the insect each year, if not more. 



Agrotis subgothica. — Haworth. 

 The Gothic Dart Moth — Larva — The Western Striped Cut-worm. — Riley. 



Common in Canada, and the Northern and Western States. It was first described 

 in the year 1810 by Mr. Haworth, and is supposed to be an English insect ; but as it is: 



