76 
MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 
This insect is frequently to be seen in the autumn on the leaves of 
the parsnip, carrot and cabbage, although I have never seen it abun¬ 
dant enough to do much harm. The smooth, naked caterpillar is 
Larva of Mamestra picta. 
striped longitudinally with yellow and black in conspicuous bands, 
these stripes being crossed with numerous fine white lines on the 
sides of the insect. The larva burrows into the ground and passes 
the winter in the pupa state, whence it emerges in the spring a moth 
with dark chestnut-brown fore wings and yellowish-white hind 
wings. The moth expands an inch and a half. 
In the genus Agrotis the larvae are known by the appropriate 
name of cut-worms. The ravages of these pests are well known to 
farmers, gardeners and florists. What an aggravation it is after pur¬ 
chasing and carefully planting a few choice pansies or sowing and 
diligently caring for a bed of sweet peas to see the young plants 
toppling over and withering in the morning sun, their stems cut off 
just above the roots. The eggs of the moths are laid in the ground 
during July and August and the infant caterpillars soon make their 
appearance, but are so minute while their food (the roots of succu¬ 
lent plants) is so abundant that their depredations are not noticed. 
As cold weather advances they burrow deep into the ground, where 
they pass the winter in smooth oval cavities in the earth in a curled 
position. When warm weather again awakens them to life they 
work their way to the surface and are then most destructive to 
young plants, often cutting off in a single night numbers of cab¬ 
bages, beaus or peas, and hiding just below the surface of the ground 
during the daytime, ready to renew their depredations the next 
night. When the larvae arrive at maturity they again descend into 
the ground, where they pupate. The moths emerge in July and 
August. The larvae are stout-bodied creatures, dingy in color, often 
striped from head to tail with light gray and brown or black. They 
are naked, with a horny plate on the upper part of the body near the 
head, and the different species so closely resemble each other as to be 
scarcely distinguishable. These insects are very destructive to many 
flowering plants as well as garden vegetables, and one or two species 
have been known to ascend apple and pear trees and grape vines in 
