4 
448 LEPIDOPTERA. 
collar, and the abdomen are chestnut-colored. It expands 
one inch and three quarters. The wings, when shut, over¬ 
lap on their inner edges, and cover the top of the hack so 
flatly and closely that these moths can get into very narrow 
crevices. During the day they lie hidden under the bark 
of trees, in the chinks of fences, and even under the loose 
clapboards of buildings. When the blinds of our houses are 
opened in the morning, a little swarm of these insects, 
which had crept behind them for concealment, is sometimes 
exposed, and suddenly aroused from their daily slumber. 
This kind of moth has the form and general appearance 
of some species of Pyrophila^ but not the essential characters 
of the genus. It differs also from Agrotis and Graphipliora 
in some respects, and therefore I have thought it best to 
leave it, for the present, in the old genus JVoctua, under the 
specific name of elandestma^ the clandestine owlet-moth. 
Among the various remedies that have been proposed for 
preventing the ravages of cut-worms in wheat and corn 
fields, may be mentioned the soaking of the grain, before 
planting, in copperas-water and other solutions supposed to 
he disagreeable to the insects ; rolling the seed in lime or 
ashes; and mixing salt with the manure. These may pre¬ 
vent wire-worms Qlali) and some insects from destroying 
the seed ; but cut-worms prey only on the sprouts and young 
stalks, and do not eat the seeds. Such stimulating applica¬ 
tions may be of some benefit, by promoting a more rapid and 
vigorous growth of the grain, by which means the sprouts 
will the sooner become so strono; and rank as to resist or 
escape the attacks of the young cut-worms. Fall-ploughing 
of sward-lands, which are intended to be sown with wheat 
or planted with corn the year following, will turn up and 
expose the insects to the inclemency of winter, whereby many 
of them will be killed, and will also bring them within reach 
of insect-eating birds. But this seems to be a doubtful rem¬ 
edy, against which many objections have been urged.^ 
* See Mr. Colman’s Third Report of the Agriculture of Massachusetts, p. 62. 
