Contribution Toward a Monograph of the Insects of the Lepidopterous Family Noctuidœ of Temperate ..1890

The genus Agrotis embraces moths of medium size as a rule, and many of them of the typical "Owlet" type. The caterpillars of many of the species are very injurious to cultivated plants, and come under the head of "Cut-Worms," a name given them from their habit of cutting off, just at the surface of the ground, the plants upon which they feed. The genus Agrotis, our American species alone considered has but to characters common to all forms: the eyes are naked and the middle and posterior tibiae are always spinose!