Chscnnlions on Insects ajfcdincj the Turnip- Crops. 101 
The Siirfacc-ijrubs have been noticed by authors more tlian a 
century ago; and in 1818, IS'iG, 1827, and 183G but few vege- 
tables escaped their ravages ; and they occasioned so serious a 
loss to the tanner, that the Agricultural Society of Saffron VValden 
and the Entomological Society of London considered the subject 
fit for a prize-essay : in 1818, which was dry, scarcely a good turnip 
was left by them.* The most conspicuous of these caterpillars are 
the offspring of the four following moths, called " the Cabbage," 
" the Great Yellow Underwing," " the Heart and Dart," and " the 
Common Dart:" they all belong to the Order Lepidoptura 
and to the Family Noctuid/E, or night-flying moths; but when 
disturbed, some of them do not refuse to fly short distances by 
day. The caterpillar of the first of these moths, although often 
secreting itself at the roots of plants, seems to live upon the leaves 
entirely : it ought not therefore strictly to be included in this 
division ; but it has so often been sent to me as a Surface-grub, 
and is so intimately connected with the following species, which 
it appears will likewise feed ui)on the leaves as well as upon the 
roots, that I could not notice it in a better place than the present. 
Ills included by modern naturalists in the Genus Mamestra,| 
under the name of 
1. Noctua (Mamestra) Brasslcse, Linn., or the Cabbage-moth 
(fig. 1) : it is of a rich brown colour ; the horns are like fine threads, 
the feelers are very short, and enclose a longish spiral tongue; 
the eyes are large and hemispherical ; the wings when at rest are 
deflexed, viz., sloping both ways, like the roof of a house ; the 
superior are more or less variegated with dark and light brown, 
having many blackish streaks upon the costal or pinion edge; 
there are two waved strigae formed of two black lines near the 
base, and another very much crenated beyond the middle; be- 
tween this and the second striga are two large black circles placed 
transversely, and sometimes very distinct ; there is also a large 
spot, the shape of a human ear, margined with white, and sur- 
rounded by a black line ; near to the extremity or fringed edge, 
which is festooned with black, runs a very sinuous line, forming a 
W in the middle : the inferior wings are brown, dirty white at 
the base, the fringe whitish, with a brown line along the centre: 
the body is obtuse at the apex, especially in the males, and the 
same colour as the under wings, the extremity being sometimes 
ochreous, and down the back is a row of black tufts ; the six legs 
are brown, the thighs are very woolly, the foreshanks are short, 
with an internal spine ; the intermediate have a pair of spurs at the 
apex; the hinder are long and stout, spurred at the apex, with 
* Major's Treatise on Insects, p. 1C9. 
t Curtis's Guide, Genus 847, No. 7. 
