90 
HABITS AND LIFE HISTORY. 
It came first to my own notice in May, 1884, among a small lot 
of corn cutworms from Henry county, Illinois; but the larva did 
not again attract our attention until May 10, 1887,* wdien it was 
discovered in Southern Illinois making a serious attack on corn 
in Williamson county, and infesting oats near Carbondale. May 
25 it was also noticed in corn fields, with A. saiicici, near Cham¬ 
paign. 
In 1888 the species was first heard from in Edwards county, 
April 22, as a “clover cutworm previously unknown,”—the speci¬ 
mens sent us being largely full grown (1.1 inch long). In a let¬ 
ter accompanying these larvae Mr. A. J. McNeely wrote: “They 
begin at the top of the clover and work downward to the bottom 
branches. About noon they collect around the roots, where I have 
found as many as fifteen about one plant.” 
April 27 I found the clover field near Albion from which these 
cutworms were taken, very largely laid bare, the whole plant being- 
eaten away to the roots. The larvae w 7 ere full grown, everywhere abun¬ 
dant, and" making their way to a field of young clover adjacent. 
No evidence was seen of disease or extensive parasitism. 
The same larva was also found in large numbers on the Uni- 
versity grounds at Urbana late in April and early in May, feed¬ 
ing at first especially on clover, denuding patches in meadows, and 
picking the clover out from among the blue grass. May 7 these 
cutw r orms w r ere brought in from oats fields on the T niversity farm, 
and May 21 a large collection of them, ranging from one half to 
full grown, was made from grass lands, freshly plowed, on this 
farm. May 29 immense numbers of them w-ere found at. Urbana 
in a little-used roadway adjoining a meadow (from which they 
had evidently emerged), nearly all full grown and preparing for 
pupation. The earth in the lane w r as honey-combed everywhere 
with holes half an inch to an inch in depth. Thirty-eight speci¬ 
mens were unearthed here from a square foot of ground. A hea-v^ 
rain having driven them from the earth, vast numbers of them 
were exposed on the surface, semi-torpid, as if affected by disease. 
been identified for me by Mr. John B. Smith. It is there compared with subgothica and with the 
European vestigialis , of which latter species Riley thinks it may be a variety merely. His descrip¬ 
tion was drawn up from two males and sis females, all bred from larvae, but no notes on the life 
history are given. 
Morrison again describes the species at some length (Proc. Phil. Acad. Sci. 18i5 [printed April 
27], p. 59) as gladiaria , Morrison citing his original description — the first here given and comparing 
with vestigialis. His specimens were captured in Canada, in May, and July 9. 
The species is next mentioned by Grote (loc. cit., p. 163) under both the above names (Morrison s 
second description only, being cited for gladiaria). Grote notices the similarity of the fon 
finds his supposed specimens of gladiaria smaller than types of mornsoniana . On page lo~ of me 
same paper, he expresses the opinion that the original morrisoraana of Morrison 1S a h ^°names 
gladiaria Finally, in his new Check List of North American Moths (18S2), p. *.5, both names, 
morrisoniana , Riley, and gladiaria , Morrison, are entered as of distinct species. 
♦The destructive abundance of the larva in 1887 and 1888 was foreshadowed by the °ccuirem.e a 
the electric light of immense numbers of the imago in September, 188b, our collections of the e\en 
iaor 0 f t he 24th, especially, vielding unexampled quantities of the species. 
