450 
LEPIDOPTERA. 
paper, winding it conically and firmly above the root, and 
securing it by a low embankment of earth.” 
In the summer of 1851, one of our agricultural news¬ 
papers contained an account of certain naked caterpillars, 
that came out of the ground in the night, and, crawling 
up the trunks of fruit-trees, devoured the leaves, and re¬ 
turned to conceal themselves in the ground before morning.* 
Perhaps these depredators were the same as the following. 
Roses, currant-bushes, and other shrubs, and even young 
trees, often lose their tender shoots, by havino; them cut 
off and devoured durino; the nicrht. This is the work of 
a naked caterpillar, which generally grows to a larger size 
than the common cut-worm, and, like the latter, may be 
found by digging at the root of the plant. One of these 
spoilers, which was turned out of his burrow early in June, 
measured an inch and a half in length. His body was 
livid or brownish and shining above, with a chestnut-col- * 
ored head, and a horny spot of the same color on the top 
of the first and last rings. A few minute dots, producing 
very short inconspicuous hairs, were regularly disposed upon 
his body. This caterpillar changed to a chrysalis in the 
ground, and was trans¬ 
formed to a moth (Fig. 
222) on the 1st of July. 
The moth very often en¬ 
ters houses in the even- 
in£r, durin^T the months 
O' O 
of Julv and Auixust, and, 
O'' 
in its restrained flight, 
keeps bobbing against the ceiling and walls. "When it 
alights, it sits with its wings sloping in the form of a steep 
roof. It is easily distinguished by its Spanish-brown upper 
wings, marked with a large pale kidney-spot, and a broad 
wavy blue-gray band near the end. Its eyes when living 
shine like coals of fire. It has been described by mistake 
* See Massachusetts Ploughman for June 28, 1851. 
