100 
triangle with this and the spiracle. Spiracles black, with pale 
centers, nine in number, the last larger than those preceding. 
Anal shield black, bristly, the segment preceding with a ring of 
shining piliferous spots, and two additional spots in front. These 
last two segments darker than those preceding. Anal plate rugose; 
cervical shield with a fine median longitudinal white line. 
Under surface a little lighter than the upper; first, second, 
seventh, and eighth segments with large shining piliferous spaces 
below, arranged in an irregular transverse row. Jointed legs dark 
without, more or less blackened at base; prolegs thick and large, 
their tips unicolorous, set with a fine shagreen of minute recurved 
hooks in addition to the large central series. 
Imago .—A thick-bodied, heavily tufted, and woolly-looking moth 
of a rather dark brownish gray color, with distinct purple gloss, 
when fresh, on all the wings, the fore wings with lighter median 
shades, and indistinct spot and five transverse lineations. The 
following general description must be very liberally applied, as 
the species is unusually variable in color. 
“Palpi luteous brown in front, dark brown externally. Thorax 
dark brown, almost blackish. Fore wings dark brown, with an 
obscure purplish hue; with luteous brown on the disc and in the 
fold, interrupted by a blackish brown, nearly square, submedian 
spot in the fold and a small one near its base of the same hue 
(sometimes merely a few blackish brown scales), with an irregular 
blackish brown spot on the end of the disc, and the costa and 
apical portion of the wing dusted and dotted, sometimes striated, 
with blackish brown. Hind wings dark brown, tinged with black¬ 
ish. Exp. al. 12 lines.”* 
Larvae answering to this description have been taken by us at 
various places in Central Illinois from the 20th to the last of 
October and from April 26 to June 3, the specimens taken at the 
date first mentioned being already fairly well grown. Larvae placed 
in a breeding cage April 26, emerged before the middle of July. 
The moth was very abundant at the electric light during the years 
1887 and 1888, chiefly in the month of June, collections ranging 
from the first of that month to the second of July. None were 
taken at any other time. 
This larva constructs a silk-lined burrow in the earth, from a 
few inches to two feet in depth, commonly terminating in a little 
chamber, and opening above in a webbed mass of earth or rubbish 
into which its silken lining is extended. This web worm is 
commonest in meadows, but most easily detecte d in cultivated 
lands the first year after grass. AYe have taken it from both corn 
and wheat following sod, and from gardens, hedge-rows, and the 
like. 
*Proc. Phil. Acad. Xat. Sci., 1859, p. 261. 
