210 Forty-second Report on the State Museum. [68] 



Pyretlirum of the dilution of one part to five of flour was slightly 

 dusted through a sieve over five larvae. In three minutes time, they 

 had ceased traveling and were violently squirming. In fifteen minutes 

 time, they were barely able to turn themselves over. In one-half 

 hour they showed no more motion than did those which had been 

 treated with unmixed pyrethrum after the lapse of an hour. The 

 experiment clearly showed that the diluted powder was not only quite 

 as efficient as the undiluted, but even more rapid in its effect. 



Mamestra grandis (Boisd.). 

 A Poplar-feeding Gut-worm. 



(Ord. Lepidoptera: Fam. Noctuhxe.) 



Hadena grandis Boisduval: Gen. Ind. Eur. Lepidop., 1840, p. 950. 



Hadena grandis Guenee: in Ann. Soc. Ent. France — Noct. Eur. Ind. me- 

 thod., 1841, p. 244; Spec. Gen. Lep., vi.— Noct., ii, 1852, p. 105, pi. 8, 

 f. 10. 



Mamestra grandis Gkote : List Noct. N. A., in Bull. Buff. Soc. N. S., ii, 

 1874, p. 12. 



An irregularly rounded cluster of the eggs of this cut-worm was 

 taken at Center, N. Y. (Karner), on the 14th of June, 1887, on the 

 leaf of a poplar, Populus tremuloides. They were not identified at the 

 time, nor even later when the larvae had been reared from them, nor 

 until the moths were obtained the following winter. 



Eggs of other of the cut-worm moths have been taken from various 

 trees. As there is no record of the larvae of such species feeding upon 

 the leaves where the eggs occur, we may presume that immediately 

 upon hatching, the young larvae drop to the ground and commence 

 to feed upon the tender blades of grass. It is possible, however, that 

 some of the species may creep at night from their hiding places — in 

 crevices in the bark of the tree in their younger stages, and in the 

 ground when more advanced — to feed upon the leaves unobserved, as 

 Agrotis Gochranii and others of the " climbing cut-worms " are known 

 to do. That this may be their habit seems plausible from the food 

 upon which this family of M. grandis was reared. Their cut-worm 

 nature not being suspected from their egg or larval features, poplar 

 was supposed to be their natural food-plant and it was accordingly 

 given them immediately upon their hatching. It was readily accepted, 

 and continued thereafter to be eaten with apparent relish. They even 

 consented to a transfer to other species than P. tremuloides, when, hav- 



