REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



295 



worm was found to have a smooth burrow, in which it lay hidden daring 

 the day, and to the bottom of which it could generally be traced. 



Nothing* seems to come amiss to its voracious appetite. It is reported 

 as one of the species especially destructive to corn-fields and gardens. 

 It destroys young tomato and tobacco plants, and, in confinement, feeds 

 with equal relish on apple and grape leaves, and 1ms been found in a 

 garden cutting off cypress vines (Quamoclit). It is also one of the cotton 

 cut-worms of the South. 



No absolute proof has yet been published that it is a cabbage insect. 

 Harris, in drawing up his description, says simply that it was one of live 

 species of cut-worms procured in the months of June and July : " Some 

 of them were dug up among cabbage-plants, some from potato-hills, 

 and others from the corn-field and flower garden" (Ins. Inj. Veg., 443). 

 We arc therefore left in doubt as to whether this larva might not have 

 been taken from the cabbage-roots. But while in Sain r Louis, we re- 

 ceived on one occasion two half grown larva of this species from Mr. 

 # N. C. Burch, of Jefferson City, with an account of how they cut off his 

 cabbage plants below and above the ground (May 3, 1SG9), and in May, 

 1870. we found the partly grown larva? cutting off young cabbages about 

 one half inch above the ground- 

 There is with this species either a dual method of hibernation or else 

 it is double brooded. Lists of local fauna show that the moth has been 

 captured abundantly in Massachusetts iu April, and again in August, 

 September, and October. In Canada it is found from June to October, 

 and a perfectly fresh specimen has been taken as late as October 1. In 

 Missouri, on several occasions between 18C8 and 1876, we took full- 

 grown larvae about May 1, but in no instance did they transform to 

 moths before July, and in one case the transformation was delayed un- 

 til late in August, whether abnormally or not, we cannot say. Farther 

 south the pupa has been several times plowed up during the winter 

 months and mistaken for the pupa of the cotton-worm. December 3, 

 1878, one was found at Virginia Point, Tex., which gave forth the moth 

 on the 6tb. April 22 a number of the pupee were sent to us which had 

 been plowed up in a cotton-tield at Americas, Ga.; the moths issued 

 before the close of the mouth. The evidence would seem to show either 

 that there is great irregularity in the time of development and mode of 

 hibernation, or that there are two broods in the Northern States, and no 

 more in Illinois and Missouri. 



We have already given (First Missouri Report, p. 80) descriptions of 

 the larva, pupa, and adult, which it will be unnecessary to repeat here. 

 The larva (Plate 1, Fig. 2, «, b), is about an inch and a half long, of a 

 dull lead brown color, with live longitudinal indistinct lighter stripes. 

 The underside of the body is dim greenish -yellow. The moth (Plate II, 

 Fig. 2, c) has dark-brown front wings, with a bluish tinge on the fore 

 border, and with a dark brown lance-shaped mark running from the 

 posterior portion of a kidney-shaped spot in the middle of the wing. 

 The hind wings are pearly white and semi-transparent. 



The eggs, which have not before been described, are laid in small 

 batches, and often in two or three layers, covered sparsely with long 

 scales from the abdomen of the female moth. They are pale fulvous in 

 color and nearly spherical in shape, the base being somewhat flattened. 

 The polar ribs are not very distinct, and the crown is small. These 

 eggs we have found laid on peach and sycamore leaves upon which the 

 larvae do not feed. The larva in the first stage is, also, a semi-looper, 

 the front prolegs being atrophied. The species is parasitized by Ta- 

 chinidse, which we have often bred from it. 



