70 



Habits of the Tomato Mot It 



of batches of eggs laid was counted, and counts of the eggs were made 

 from 50 batches removed at random from each cage. The results are 

 shown in Table I. 



A fed female moth on the average survived a month and produced 

 nearly 900 eggs. Under more natural conditions the number is probably 

 greater. Access to food doubled the average life of the moths and the 

 average number of batches of eggs laid. It increased by 33 per cent, the 

 average number of eggs in a batch, and a fed female produced more 

 than three times the number of eggs laid by an unfed one. A repetition 

 of the experiment gave similar results: six fed female moths, with an 

 average life of 14 days, laid 66 batches of eggs, and seven unfed females, 

 with an average life of six days, laid 13 batches. 



Table II. A study of the selection of the food plant by the moth. 



Experiments were carried out in similar cages to discover (1) whether 

 the moth has any preference for one plant over another in selecting 

 foliage on which to lay eggs; and (2) whether it would be possible to 

 attract them from the tomato plants in the glasshouses by planting 

 any particular weed amongst the rows. If such attractive weeds were 

 discovered great benefit might accrue, since they could be sprayed 

 with a poisonous spray throughout the season. Various common garden 

 plants and weeds were planted iD pots and boxes, and placed in the 

 cages, where their positions were interchanged every day or two. As 

 far as possible an equal amount of foliage of each variety of plant was 

 included. The moths used were all bred from larvae collected on tomato 



