108 
Ohscrwtions on the various Insects 
as the oilier species arc, being somewhat depressed above and 
flattish beneath, wliich is probably a better form for burrowing 
under the roots ; they walk rapidly, but cannot stick fast by their 
feet, and consequently soon fall off anything they are placed upon: 
the chrysalis like the others is formed in the earth. 
Another species belonging to the same genus, and equally if 
not more destructive, is the offspring of a moth which has been 
named by Ochsenheimer 
4. Noctua (Agrotis) Segetum, the common Dart-moth (fig. 9j : 
it is generally of a reddish-brown, but varies so greatly in the tint 
of the upper wings, which are sometimes of a clay-colour, as well 
as in the strength and shape of the markings upon them, that 
Mr. Haworth has described it under nine different names in his 
' Lepidoptcra Britannica.' The feelers, tongue, and horns are 
like those of A. exclamationis, but the latter are more decidedly 
pectinated in the males;* the wings are also placed in the same 
way in repose as in that species ; the superior are freckled with 
brown, there are two double-waved lines across the base, to the 
second of which is attached a black oval or elliptical spot, mar- 
gined with black ; on the disc is a ring circled with black and 
dark in the centre, with a large ear-shaped spot by its side of the 
same tint ; beyond these is a double indented and waved line, and 
near the margin a still more irregular one ; at the base of the 
fringe is a row of black lunate spots: the inferior wings are pure 
white with an opalescent shade, the nervures and a line along the 
margin are fuscous ; the body is brown, palest at the base : the 
six legs are grisly, but formed like those of A. exclamationis. 
The female is much darker, and the horns are simple: the head, 
thorax, and upper wings are deep chocolate or brown, the mark- 
ings, so visible in the males, being almost obliterated in this sex : 
the under wings are dirty-white, softening into fuscous at the 
margin, the nervures being of the same colour : length from 8 
lines to f of an inch, expanse from 1^ to 2 inches. 
This moth is sometimes seen flying in multitudes about the 
tops of hedges soon after sunset, in June and July, and 1 have 
taken it on the sand-hills near Sandwich in the middle of October; 
from this it may be inferred that there are either two broods in a 
year, or that there is a constant succession of them during the 
summer and autumn months. It seems to be universally distri- 
buted, being found in almost every part of Europe, and, like the 
foregoing species, is equally common at the Cape of Good Hope. 
The females lay their eggs in the earth in the month of August, 
or earlier, and the young caterpillars emerge from the shells in 
about ten days or a fortnight, and after living through the winter 
* Curtis's Brit. Ent., pi. 1G5, figs. 1 and V. 
