THE AGROTIDIANS. 
441 
pale buff or yellowish white, with a central spot, and a band 
behind it, of a brownish color. The head is brown ; the 
thorax is tawny yellow, Avith a brown tuft; and the edges of 
the collar and of the shoulder-covers are brown. The Avino:s 
expand rather more than one inch and a half. I have what 
appear to be varieties of this moth, expanding one inch and 
three eighths, with three or four white dots around the kid¬ 
ney-spot, and the ordinary round spot wholly Avhite. 
Numerous complaints have been made of the ravages of 
cut-worms among corn, wheat, grass, and other vegetables, 
in various parts of the country. After a tiresome search 
through many of our agricultural publications, I have become 
convinced that these insects and their history are not yet 
known to some of the very persons Avho are said to have 
suffered from their depredations. Various cut-worms, or 
more properly subterranean caterpillars, wire-Avorms, or luli^ 
and grub-Avorms, or the young of May-beetles, are often con¬ 
founded together or mistaken for each other; sometimes 
their names are interchanged, and sometimes the same name 
is given to each and all of these different animals. Hence 
the remedies that are successful in some instances are entirelv 
t/ 
useless in others. The name of cut-Avorm seems originally 
to have been given to certain caterpillars that live in the 
ground about the roots of plants, but come up in the night, 
and cut off and deA'our the tender stems and loAver leaA^es of 
young cabbages, beans, corn, and other herbaceous plants. 
These subterranean caterpillars are finally transformed to 
moths belonging to a group Avhich may be called Agrotidians 
(Agrotidid^e), from a AA'ord signifying rustic, or pertaining 
to the fields. Some of these rustic moths fly by day, and 
may be found in the fields, especially in the autumn, sucking 
the honey of floAvers ; others are on the Aving only at night, 
and during the day lie concealed in chinks of Avails and other 
dark places. Their Avings are nearly horizontal Avhen closed, 
the upper pair completely coA’ering the loAver Avings, and 
often OA'erlapping a little on their inner edges, thus fa Adoring 
56 
