904 
Annual Report of New York 
FLOWERY PRIMROSE-MOTH. LARVA. WINTER RETREAT UNDERGROUND. 
was not immediately attacked by the bug, it having been recently 
fed. I he worm thereupon with its threads wove a close web over 
itself in a corner of the jar, whereby the next day the bug was 
unable to get at it to devour it. 
It was the middle of September when I first discovered these 
worms, they being then grown to three-fourths of an inch in length. 
The next year they made their advent in full force nearly two 
months earlier. Thus they are liable to be present among the 
flower beds at all times from the middle of July till the end of 
September—the parent moths not coming forth simultaneously to 
deposit their eggs, but appearing one after another, for a period of 
at least six weeks, in July and the fore part of August, whereby it 
comes to pass that small young worms and those that are grown to 
their full size are seen upon the plants at the same time. 
When the worm is done feeding it crawls down the stalk to the 
ground and there buries itself to pass its pupa state, underneath 
the plant on which it has been fed. Thus the whole distance 
which it customarily travels, from the time it hatches from the egg 
until it enters its pupa state scarcely exceeds four or six feet. The 
instinct to bury itself immediately upon its coming to the ground 
is so stiong that its only care seems to be to avoid encroaching 
upon the places of sepulture of others that have preceded it in 
descending from the same plant. Upon reaching an unoccupied 
spot it hastens to inter itself. Even if it chances to be upon one of 
the liard trodden walks of the garden, it does not go further, to 
seek for a softer spot, but at great labor bores a cylindrical hole 
of sufficient size to admit its body, directly downwards, where the 
earth is so firmly compacted that we would suppose it quite impos¬ 
sible for a soft worm like this to penetrate it. 
It remains underground through the autumn, winter and spring, 
coming out in its perfect form the following summer. As already 
intimated, the first moths begin to be seen abroad at the commence¬ 
ment of July, and others continue to come forth till the middle of 
August. These moths may be met with during the day time, rest¬ 
ing openly exposed among the wilted flowers of the CEnothera. 
Although they are classed with a group of moths that are day-fliers, 
I have never seen one of them take wing by day. They appear to 
fly but little. It is probable that the narrowness of their wings 
incapacitates them from flying so readily and freely as do their kin- 
died. A moth which was standing upon a flower stalk of the 
