FAEMERS' INSTITUTES. 279 



visitations which were so long inexplicable except as tokens of Divine vengeance, 

 called forth by man's iniquity, — an army of devastating insects. And though 

 the superior intelligence of our day no longer recognizes this as the result of an 

 offended Deity, but as the natural sequence of those wonderful yet harmonious 

 laws which govern the animal kingdom, still the observations generally made 

 during the last season in reference to the army worm were characterized by 

 absurdities but little less glaring, and indicate that even yet there is a general 

 ignorance about common things which is far from complimentary to our present 

 system of instruction. 



In their plan of attack, immense numbers, and serious despoliation, these 

 army worms bear striking likeness to the noted grasshoppers of the west and the 

 far-famed locusts of the orient. 



This is not the first time, either, that Michigan and the northern part of our 

 country generally, have been inflicted with this plague. Many of you will 

 remember a similar raid which occurred in 1861, while history informs us that 

 still earlier attacks at long intervals were experienced in New York and the 

 New England States. And what gives to these phenomena an unusual interest 

 is the fact that, even though these caterpillars come in myriads, the very next 

 year they will 2iot be sufficiently common to even attract notice. Such an anomaly 

 in insect habits certainly calls for explanation. Let us, then, trace the natural 

 history of these insects, examine closely into their habits, and then see if the 

 strange problem of their erratic course is capable of solution. 



NATUEAL HISTOEY. 



The moth (see Fig. 1), though not very showy, 

 is quite attractive. The color is an indistinct 

 yellowish brown. There is a central white spot 

 on the primary wings, with an oblique row of 

 black dots near the extremity, and another simi- 

 lar row midway between this and the white spot. 

 The secondary or back wings are dusky, bordered 

 with a lighter band. It is nearly an inch long, 

 ^i<^- 1- and expands about two inches. These moths, 



like nearly all of the family, are nocturnal, remaining concealed by day, and are 

 attracted both by lights and sweets. I have seen as many as twenty at a time 

 on a board a foot square, sipping away at syrup which I had previously spread 

 on purpose to attract moths. Upon the least disturbance, they would dart 

 forth, looking not unlike snowflakes as they flitted about my lantern. 



I took the first moths on the night of the 17th of August. They continued 

 to appear, and in two or three days became very numerous, and remained so 

 till the middle of September, when they commenced to grow less, though I 

 took them occasionally during the entire autumn. I have taken these moths 

 at Lansing every autumn for the last eight years, though in limited numbers. 

 This fall they were the most common of our moths, and yet we were not troubled 

 at Lansing with the larvre, — the so-called army-worm. 



Hence at Lansing, Michigan, it is safe to assert that the eggs are laid in the 

 months of August and September. As we go south we should expect the egg- 

 laying to occur earlier, and observation has sustained our inference, as the 

 moths have been observed even six or eight weeks earlier in southern Illinois 

 and Missouri. 



