33 



lifJURIOUS IXSECTS 



induced Dr. Melsheimer to call this worm the Zebra." 

 Though it does not conceal itself, it inyariably curls up 

 cut-worm fashion, and rolls to the ground when disturbed. 



It changes to the chrysalis within a rude cocoon formed 

 just under the surface of the ground, by interweaying a 

 few grains of sand, or a few particles of whatever goil it 

 happens on. With silken threads. The chrysalis is three- 

 fourths of an inch in length, deep shiny brown, and thickly 

 punctured except on the posterior border of the seg- 

 ments, and especially of those three immediately below 

 the wing-sheaths, where it is reddish and not polished ; 

 it terminates in a blunt point ornamented with two thorns. 

 The moth (fig. 24, l,) which is called the Painted 

 Mamestra, appears during the latter part of July, audit is 

 a prettily marked species, the front wings of a beautiful 

 and rich purple-brown, blending with a dehcate hghter 

 shade of brown in the middle; ordinary spots in the 

 middle of the wing, with a third oval spot more or less 

 distinctly marked behind the round one, are edged and 

 transversed by white lines so as to appear like delicate 

 net-work; a transverse zigzag white line, like a sprawling 

 W, is also more or less visible near the terminal border, 

 on which border there is a series of white specks; a few 

 white atoms are also sj)rinkled in other places on the 

 wing. The hind wings are white, faintly edged with 

 brown on the upper and outer borders. The head and 

 thorax are of the same color as the front wingS; and the 

 body has a more grayish cast. 



There are two broods of this insect each year, the second 

 brood appearing in the latitude of St. Louis from the 

 middle of August along into October, and in all proba- 

 bility passing the winter in the chrysalis state, though a 

 few may issue in the fall, and hibernate as moths, or 

 may even hibernate as worms; for Mr. J. H. Parsons, of 

 N. Y. , found that some of the worms vf hich were on his 

 Kuta Baga leaves, stood a frost hard enough to freeze 



