The Army-worm. 247 



1889 and 1892, only one moth was attracted to th^ lanterns dur- 

 ing the two years. 



Doubtless the army-worm moths that emerge in the spring and 

 summer do not live more than two or three weeks ; some of them 

 which emerge in the fall live all winter in hibernation. They are 

 fond of liquid sweets, such as a sugar solution painted upon trees 

 to attract other insects ; and last year in southern New Jersey 

 they were found in large numbers among the plant-lice on melon 

 vines, doubtless attracted by the "honey dew" secreted by the 

 aphids. They undoubtedly feed upon the nectar of various flow- 

 ers for they have been taken in the evening upon the blossoms of 

 clover and soap-wort ; they have also been found feeding on the 

 blossoms of apple, honeysuckle, and yucca. In August we tried 

 to persuade the moths to lay eggs in our cages where there was 

 no food for them, but all died without ovipositing. We fed the 

 moths which emerged in the fall with sweetened water and they 

 oviposited freely in the cages. 



The n2i7nber of broods of the army-worm in New York. — The 

 army-worm apparently did not attract attention in any locality in 

 New York in 1896 until about July ist. Then the worms weie 

 half or two -thirds grown and had begun to march in armies. 

 From some of these caterpillars we reared the adult insect as early 

 as July 25th, and many moths continued to emerge until about 

 August 15th. We failed to induce these moths to lay eggs, as 

 noted above. In most localities the insect was not noticed again 

 in 1896, but from two places reports reached us, on September 

 14th and 29th, of the ravages of armies of worms, These were 

 evidently the offspring of the brood of moths which emerged in 

 the latter part of July and the first week in August. From some 

 of the September armies of the worms, moths emerged in our 

 cages from October 31st until November i8th. November 9th, 

 we saw a pair of moths in copulation, and by the nth the femak 

 had laid many eggs on the grass leaves. By the 20th of the 

 month some of the eggs had hatched ; other eggs hatched as late 

 as the 27th. Ordinarily this would be rather late for the little 

 caterpillars to obtain food, but last year the weather was favor- 

 able at that late date and continued so for some time, so that the 



