99 
THE 
VIOLET NEPHELODES —(Nephelodes violans —Guenee.) 
As corn forms one of the food plants of the caterpillar of this moth, 
it may be placed here among the corn insects, though the extent it 
may injure corn is unknown, for I fail to find any record of the insect 
3 xcept in the moth state. 
I found while watching it in the rearing box that it possessed the 
same habits as the larvae of the genus Agrotis and those more closely 
related to that genus, for which reason it might be called the Smooth 
Cut-worm and placed in that group of injurious insects; though the 
structure of both the caterpillar and moth are more like the Stalk- 
borers, of which Gortyna nitela is a good example. 
My notes indicate that the first time I found this worm was April 
28th, and that it lay partly concealed in the grass under the edge of a 
piece of old stove pipe. At this time it was about an inch long and 
'O dark that it was almost black, with the light stripes appearing to 
jo only a short distance from either end towards the middle. During 
-he month of May I found more of them with several other larvae un- 
ler patches of dead grass where there was moisture and grass and 
weeds at hand for food. At this time the worms were larger and 
lighter than those first found. In length it was at this time 1.75 
inches. In form robust, with the head about four-sevenths the width 
}f the body. Above the lower edge of the stigmata are four broad, 
lark Drown longitudinal stripes alternating with three narrow gray¬ 
ish yellow ones, the latter being in the dorsal and subdorsal regions, 
md lighter at the extremities of the body than in the middle. In 
:heir motions they seemed to be sluggish unless disturbed when they 
could move rapidly. 
While in confinement I fed them on young corn, grass and knot¬ 
grass, a weed that grows about every dwelling. They ate without 
seeming preference all of them, eating both the culms and leaves of 
the corn. Like the larvae of the different species of Agrotis, they fed 
nostly at night and lay concealed during the day. As there was usu¬ 
ally plenty of material in the box for them to hide under they com- 
nonly hid under that above the dirt, but they sometimes would hide 
eeneath the dirt. When they had attained their full size they went 
mto the dirt and changed to robust, dark brown chrysalids, larger 
proportionally in the middle than the species of Agrotis , and tapering 
aiore abruptly from the middle to the tip. 
The moth is about the size and about as dark as the dark specimens 
->f the Unarmed Rustic. It is of a rich brown color, tinged all over 
with a rosy hue, except a space in the centre of the fore wings, which 
:s brown, and the outer portion of the hind wings, which is a blackish 
slate color. The fringe on the hind wings is a rich rose color, but on 
‘he fore wings a little darker. 
T They went into the chrysalis state in June and came out as moths 
mout the middle of September. From this, and the fact that the 
caterpillars were nearly grown when found in April, there must be 
)nly one brood in a season, and the partly grown larvae must pass the 
winter in a torpid state. Under my treatment they exhibited only a 
