92 
upon the herbage above the ground during the night. By the time 
the frosts and cold nights of fall warn them of the approach of win¬ 
ter they are about half grown. They now descend several inches into 
the ground where they remain torpid during the winter, to come forth 
when the warm days of spring that have started vegetation have also 
warmed them into life. 
THE REAPING RUSTIC.—( Agrotis messoria —Harris.) 
The larva is the Dark-sided Cut-worm. 
This worm, similar in habit to the Climbing Cut-worm, w r as first 
described by Prof. Riley in the Prairie Farmer of June 2, 1866, where 
he designated it as the Dark-sided Cut-worm. A year after this, oi 
June 22, 1867, he published in the same paper some further observa¬ 
tions on this and other Cut¬ 
worms, and there named the 
moth that is produced from this 
one, Agrotis Cochrani , in honor of 
Mr. J. W. Cochran, of Calumet, 
Ill., who had materially assist¬ 
ed him in his study of the Cut¬ 
worms. Although this is the 
first that had been written about 
Fig. 19. The Reaping Rustic. 
the Caterpillar, the moth had been found and named at two differen 1 
times before this, by Grote and Robinson, in the first volume .of th( 
transactions of the American Entomological Society, where it wa 
called Agrotis repentis ; but the first name given to the moth,, and th( 
one by which it is now generally known was Agrotis messoria , by Dr 
Harris in his work “Insects Injurious to Vegetation.” 
Although the descriptions we have of this Cut-worm relate whollj 
to its climbing habit, I am satisfied that with some others it does no' 
confine its depredations to eating off buds from trees and shrubs ir 
our orchards and gardens, but that it takes part in the destruction o 
field crops as well. This is one of the five species that were reared bi 
Dr. Harris that, as he says, “some of them were dug up among cab 
bages, some from potato hills, and others from the corn field and th< 
flower garden.” At the time, he made no description of the. caterpil 
lars, as he evidently supposed they all belonged to one species, for In 
says of them, “much to my surprise, however, these Cut-worms pro 
duced five different species of moths; and, when it was too late, I re 
gretted that they had not been more carefully examined and com 
pared together before their transformations.” . > ! 
The caterpillar is in general color dingy ash-gray with the side 
darker than the rest of the body. In the young worms the sides ari 
much darker, and the white below the dark sides “is then, cream colo 
and very distinct.” The top of the body has a little inclination to ; 
shade of flesh color, while on each segment there are eight smal 
black shining spots, from each of which arises a short bristle-lik 
