THE CORN-WORil : HABITS OF THE MOTH AND CATERPILLAR. 119 



ing place by that peculiar dull, smoky weather of the first three weeks 

 of September, when even the Sphinyidm forgot their usual caution and 

 came forth boldly to feed at mid-day, having taken a tomato sphinx 

 (;]/, qiiiitquemaculata) at 'Z o'clock in the aiteruoon of the 14lh, feed- 

 ing on petunias, whilst the white-lined sphinx [Deilephila lineaia) 

 could be seen by th« half-dozen among the flowers at any time of the 

 day. The Ileliothis moth, being about an inch and three-quarters in 

 expanse of wing, was quite a conspicuous object while feeding, more 

 especially as it seldom rested, but kept its wings moving the while." 



That its visit to flowers during tlie day time is not an unusual oc- 

 currence, appears from an observation made by Mr. C. G. Barrett, of 

 Pembroke, Eng., who states : " While working the clover fields, I dis- 

 covered the (to me) novel fact that ^(3/iOi!/iisar;w.?^er flies most actively 

 in the sunshine, feeding at the clover blossoms exactly like the swarms 

 of Plusia gamma around it, and that it soon becomes in this way misera- 

 bly worn." {E)it. lUonih. Mag., xW, Y>. lol.) Nor is the flight by day in- 

 cidentally noted of Deilephila lineaia at all uncommon. Prof. H. W. 

 Parker records it, in August of 1880, as the most conspicuously com- 

 mon moth in the vicinity of Grinnell, Iowa: " At all hours of the dag 

 one or more might be seen hovering over nearly every flower of the 

 innumerable weeds, mostly thistles and Helianthus, by the roadsides. 

 In places, the moths might be estimated by the hundreds" {Psyche,\i\, 

 1882, p. 342). 



Carnivorous Habits of the Caterpillar. 



An interesting account of the carnivorous habits of the caterpillar 

 is given by Professor Berg, Director of the Museum of Natural 

 History of Buenos Ayres, as it came under his observation during 

 some collections of Lepidoptera made by him, in Patagonia, in 1874.* 

 The species occurred only upon those portions of the coast to Avhich 

 cultivation had extended, from which it seemed probable that it had 

 been introduced through commercial intercourse with other countries. 

 Large numbers of lepidopterous larvae were collected and their trans- 

 formations and food-plants observed. He writes as follows of a re- 

 markable peculiarity in their habits; — 



" It still remains for me to note a peculiarity of the caterpillars, viz., 

 their extreme ferocity — their cannibalistic propensities. All of them, 

 irrespective of family or group, manifest the liveliest desire to kill their 

 fellows. While confined, they ate one another, seldom, if ever, touch- 

 ing the food-plants. The caterpillars of the Bombycidce completely 

 devoured others of the same family, leaving absolutely no fragments 

 of them. They even tore open the cocoons, from which they dragged 

 out the pupaiand ate tliem. In like manner, thelarvas of i\\Q Xoduidm 

 acted among themselves and toward the BombgcidcB, and the latter 



* Bulletin, de la Societe. Impiriale des Naturalistea de Moacou, xlix, 1875, Partie ii, p. 192. 



