120 FIRST ANNUAL liEPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



toward the former. Among these last, Heliotliis armiger ivas glutton- 

 ous beyond all measure — one of them devouring in twenty-four hours 

 from six to seven others. They -would not touch the plants after hav- 

 ing once tasted Jlc.'^h." 



Professor Comstock records its carnivorous habits.* lie states that 

 when several larva3 were mailed to the Agricultural Department in the 

 same box, only one would arrive alive, the others having been destroyed, 

 even when the box contained cotton leaves and bolls, or corn leaves, in 

 fresh condition. When rearing the larvaj in breeding-cages, although 

 supplied with an abundance of fresh food, they seemed as hungry as 

 ever for their companions, and eagerly devoured one another : it was 

 impossible to rear them otherwise than singly in a cage. 



Mr. Trelease reports {loc. cit. sup.) that he repeatedly saw large 

 boll-worms catcli small ones and either devour them entirely, or bite 

 into them and suck their juices, rejecting the empty skin. In many 

 instances he discovered boll-worms occupying the webbed-up leaves 

 which the Aletia cotton-Avorms had j)repared for their pupation, for 

 the purpose of feeding upon the pupse. Remains of pupse were found 

 which had been fed upon by the larvae. 



A gentleman from Mississippi states that he has seen in that State 

 the Ileliothis caterpillar eating the pup® of Aletia.^ 



Judge Johnson, of Holly Springs, Miss., reports that the caterpillars 

 of til is species are the most ravenous and cannibalistic of vegetable 

 feeding larvae. They manifest a decided preference for the pupae of 

 other Lepidoptera. The large caterpillars would leave everything for 

 the Ak'tia pupce when they were to be found in abuudance.| 



Professor French has found dead Ileliothis larvfB in their burrows 

 beneath the husks of corn, under conditions that convinced him that 

 they had been bitten and killed by their associates in the ear.§ 



The Food-plants of the Caterpillar. 



An unusually large number of food-plants have been recorded upon 

 which the larva is known to feed, in addition to the two which it pre- 

 fers, viz., cotton and corn. It has shown itself as a destructive to- 

 mato-worm, boring into both the fruit and the stem ; it eats into the 

 pods of peas and different kinds of garden beans, as string-beans 

 and Lima beans ; it burrows into pumpkins, squashes, and peppers, 

 and in tiie stems of gladiolus. Mr. Trelease has found it feeding abun- 

 dantly upon the cow-pea of the Southern States, boring from the out- 

 side into one cluiraber after another to eat the contents. It is recorded 

 in Europe upon tlie chick-pea {Cicia arietinum), where also, accord- 

 ing to M. Goureau, it feeds upon heads of hemp, leaves of tobacco, and 



■'^Report upon Cntion Insects, 1879, p. o03. 



^Amer. Entomol., iii, 1880. p. 253. 



XRept. Commis. Agricul. for 1881 and 1882, pp. 150, 151. 



§Thomas' ll^A Report Ins. III., 1882, p. 92. 



