Vol. xxvi] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 419 



Another Migratory Moth (Lep.) 



By J. R. WATSON, Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, 



Gainesville, Florida. 



During the past year the writer has been working on the 

 life history and distribution of the noctuid moth Anticarsia 

 gammatilis. This study has resulted in some rather interest- 

 ing discoveries. The caterpillars are a great pest of one of 

 our most valuable leguminous forage and soil-improving 

 plants, the velvet bean (Stisolobium sp.). It attacks also 

 the kudzu vine and the horse bean (Cannavalia) . 



Neither the caterpillars or the moths make their appearance 

 about Gainesville until August, and usually do not become 

 sufficiently abundant to cause material damage until the first 

 of September, although the velvet beans are large enough to 

 seem to be attractive as early as May. Hence one of the ques- 

 tions that we set out to solve was, Where are the insects from 

 early December until August? There seemed to be three pos- 

 sible answers. Stated in the order of their seeming probabil- 

 ity, they were : 



(1) The caterpillars and moths are present during at least 

 the spring and early summer but in such diminished numbers 

 as to escape attention ; the caterpillars perhaps feeding on some 

 wild legume. 



(2) The insect remains in the pupa stage until late July 

 or August. 



(3) The insect dies out each winter to again come up from 

 the south each summer. 



1. A careful search has been made during the past two 

 seasons for both the moths and the caterpillars during the first 

 seven months of the year. The fields and woods have been 

 carefully searched every few days and moth traps maintained 

 at night. This search has yielded uniformly negative results. 

 Not a single moth or caterpillar has been seen before August. 



2. Hundreds of caterpillars were reared in the laboratory 

 during October and November with special care to protect 

 them from "cholera," a fungus disease due to Botrytis rilcyi. 

 These pupae and others collected from the field were placed in 



