THE AGROTIDIAXS. 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, with a brown tuft ; and the edges of 
the collar and of the shoulder-covers are brown. The wings 
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 white. 
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 who are said to have 
suffered from their depredations. Various cut-worms, or 
more properly subterranean caterpillars, wire-worms, or Iuli, 
and grub-worms, 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 entirely 
useless in others. The name of cut-worm 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 devour the tender stems and lower leaves of 
young cabbages, beans, corn, and other herbaceous plants. 
These subterranean caterpillars are finally transformed to 
moths belonging to a group which may bo called Agrotidians 
(Agrotidid.e), from a word 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 flowers ; others are on the wing only at night, 
and during the day lie concealed in chinks of walls and other 
dark places. Their wings are nearly horizontal when closed, 
the upper pair completely covering the lower wings, and 
often overlapping a little on their inner edges, thus favoring 
56 
