THE SUBSTITUTE. 
191 
thouglit that I am embellishing. 
It has often been my lot I'ov an 
entire season to feed the larvae of 
Agrotis without once seeing them, 
and to find literally in my cages 
the perfect insect in the place of 
the caterpillar which I had placed 
there. To sum up, all the larvae 
of the Nocluidm are thick, com- 
pletely cylindrical, and without 
any kind of eminence except the 
ordinary spots. All live exclu- 
sively on low plants, avoid the 
light of day, and enter the earth 
in order to change to a chrysalis. 
The perfect insects which come 
1 from them are sometimes rather 
brilliant. The legs are almost 
always long and with distinct 
spines, and the palju are generally 
well-developed. They fly vapidly, 
Ihnt several feel the efl'ects, so to 
speak, of their origin, and pass 
almost their whole life concealed 
in the holes of trees or in the in- 
terstices of rocks. It is to this 
I family that belong almost all 
I those we find in country houses, 
I hid in the rabbets of shutters and 
I the hinges of doors, or at rest on 
I the dark parts of walls and ceil- 
ings. The reason why we find 
1 them so often in our houses is be- 
cause the larvm are, so to speak, 
our intimate enemies. It is our 
: gardens, onr orchards, that they 
I choose as the theatre of their ra- 
vages ; the vegetables that we cul- 
I livate with care, or the weeds which 
;grow in spite of us under our feet 
are equally to their taste, and it is 
iin this family that the larvm most 
injurious to horticulture are 
1 found.” I have nothing to add to 
this sketch of the manners of this 
family; and as to the means of 
warding off their attacks I must 
I refer to what I have said of 
Triphcena pronnba, where I indi- 
cate the sole palliative, alas ! very 
insufficient, which can be made 
use of. All the receipts wliich 
have been given, and I might 
almost add all that ever will be 
given with this end, will always fail 
of their effects, because we have 
here to deal with individual ene- 
mies which we must fight with one 
by one, and which their mode of 
lile conceals even from the re- 
searches of the naturalist. The 
Noctuidce are found throughout 
the globe, but principally in 
Europe and North America, that 
is to say, in temperate climates. 
Often the individuals of the two 
countries are com|)letely identical, 
at other times they are only races, 
of the same species, and when the 
species really are different there is 
often between them the greatest 
analogy. A great number have 
been known to authors, and as 
there is great difficulty in distin- 
guishing them their synonymy is 
in general much confused. We 
notice a certain relationship be- 
tween certain Noctuce and some 
genera of the tribe of Apamidce, 
but as a rule they are distinguished 
by a different general appearance, 
by the spines with which the legs 
are generally furnished, by the 
presence of the tongue, always 
tolerably developed, by the posi- 
tion of the wings in repose, by the 
complete absence of crests on the 
abdomen, &c. In fact, the ge- 
nera Heliophobus, Ckarceas, Epi- 
sema, 6cc., which are certainly 
most allied to this family, are re- 
cognised by the almost complete 
absence of the tougue, and the 
rudimentary and hairy palpi, as in 
the Bombyces. (Vol. 1., pp. 263 — 
255.) [To be continued.] 
