222 HALF HOURS WITH INSECTS. [Packard. 



August or September, or even later. Mr. Lyman, in the 

 little work already referred to, says : "That nature has made 

 no provisions by which either the fly, the worm, the chrysa- 

 lis or the eggs, can survive the winter or exist for any length 

 of time where the cotton plant is not a perennial." But 

 this is surely an error, which Mr. Lyman would never have 

 made, had he possessed a better knowledge of insect life ; 

 and as Mr. Glover found that the chrysalis was killed by the 

 slightest frost, the insect evidently winters over in the moth 

 state, as do many others belonging to the same tribe. Mr. 

 W. B. Seabrook gives strong evidence that this is the case, 

 in a "Memoir on the Cotton Plant," read in 1843, before 

 the State Agricultural Society of South Carolina, wherein he 

 says : "That the Cotton Moth survives the winter is nearly 

 certain. An examination of the neighboring woods, espe- 

 cially after a mild winter, has often been successfully made 

 for that purpose." And Dr. Phares states positively that 

 "the moth hibernates in piles of cotton seed under shelter, 

 under bark and in crevices of trees in dense forests and 

 other secluded places, and that it may often be seen on 

 pleasant days in winter." 



While this worm is young and small it does not seem to 

 attract attention, but early in the autumn it suddenly be- 

 comes abundant, and at certain years extremely destructive. 

 One of these visitations, which fell under the observation of 

 the eminent botanist, Professor J. Darby, of Auburn, Ala- 

 bama, is thus described in a letter to the writer : "Saturday, 

 September 19th, I was in the field examining the forms 

 (buds before flowering) and the young bolls (fruit after the 

 floral organs have fallen off). I examined all carefully, 

 with no signs of eggs or worms. On Sunday I did not see 

 it. On Monday I passed it as usual and observed nothing 

 unusual. On Tuesday morning I passed it and noticed 

 nothing unusual. On Tuesday noon every plant in the field 

 was stripped of all its upper leaves ; not one remaining as 



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