840 Journal of Agricultural Research voi.xx.No. h 



under natural conditions neither pupae nor moths have been found at 

 this time of the year. 



HABITS OF THE MOTHS 



The moths frequent low, moist situations where the food plants grow 

 normally. During the day they rest on or under the leaves and when 

 disturbed make low direct or circuitous flights within the bounds of their 

 haunts. 



THE EGGS 



Eggs have been taken many times in the field, but oviposition has not 

 been observed. It doubtless occurs at dusk or during the night, and 

 possibly on cloudy days, as the moths seem active only at such times. 

 The eggs are laid in small patches or often in rows, with the individual 

 eggs overlapping shingle fashion, on the underside of the leaves, more 

 often those near the tips of the branches, and either on the leaf blade 

 proper or close beside the midrib in the angle between it and the blade. 



Near Union City, Tenn., on August 8, 191 9, the senior author found 

 an isolated clump of six plants of Polygonum pennsyhanicum. Thirty 

 egg masses were found on these plants, all but one or two close beside 

 the midrib on the under surface of the leaf. In three instances there were 

 more than one mass on a leaf, but the difference in the stage of develop- 

 ment clearly showed that they had been laid at different times. The num- 

 ber of eggs per mass varied from 4 to 1 6, the average being 9.3. In another 

 collection of 17 egg masses made at Knoxville, August 12, the number of 

 eggs varied from 7 to 14, with an average of 9.47 per mass. 



As the egg has not heretofore been described, its description follows: 



Egg. — Flat, thin, scalelike, laid in flat masses or rows of from 4 to 16, shingle 

 fashion, each egg about half overlapping its predecessor. The individual egg is broadly 

 elliptic, sometimes almost circular in outline, about 1.213 mm. long and 0.886 mm. 

 broad. Chorion evenly reticulated all over with a close network of very fine but 

 sharply elevated lines. Pale watery-greenish in color, nearly transparent when first 

 laid, soon becoming more opaque, after which the embryo takes shape as a darker 

 green, more transparent object in the center. No marked change then occurs until 

 just before hatching, when the eyes and the mandibles darken, the color spreading to 

 the whole head which becomes brown and plainly visible and appears detached 

 because of the paleness and practical invisibility of the larval body which lies bent 

 around the periphery. 



The period of incubation in June and July is six days, in late August 

 five days. 



HABITS OF THE LARVAE 



Upon hatching, the young larvae at once enter the stem near the tip of 

 a branch, choosing the base of a petiole for their point of attack. That 

 they are somewhat gregarious at this stage is shown by the fact that all 

 the larvae hatching from one egg mass usually enter the stem at the same 

 point, which may be several inches from the egg mass. Thus in the first 



