37 



bromeliae and Diaspis bromeliae on pineapples and Coccus longulus on 

 betel leaves, from Hawaii ; Lepidosaphes gloveri on limes and Calandra 

 oryzae in beans, from Mexico ; Aspidiotus cydoniae, A. cyanophylli 

 and Chrysomphalus sculiformis on bananas, from Central America. 



Watson (J. R,). Another Migratory Moth (Lep.). — Entom. News, 

 Philadelphia, xxvi, no. 9, November 1915, pp. 419-422. 



The study during 1915 of the life-history and distribution of the 

 Noctuid, Anticarsia gemmalilis, has resulted in some interesting 

 discoveries. In South Florida, the caterpillars are a great pest of the 

 velvet bean {Sfizolobiwn sp.), one of the most valuable leguminous 

 forage and soil-improving plants. It attacks also the kudzu vine and 

 the horse bean {Canavalia). The caterpillars and moths begin to do 

 serious ii^jury at Miami in July, and 6 weeks later at Gainesville in 

 North Florida. There they appear in August, but do not become 

 sufficiently abundant to do material damage until 1st September, 

 although the beans are large enough to be attractive as early as May. 

 During tiie past two seasons a careful search was made through the 

 first seven months of the year, but not a single moth or caterpillar was 

 seen before August. Hundreds of caterpillars were reared in the 

 laboratory during October and November, with special care to protect 

 them from a fungus disease due to Botrylis rileyi. These pupae and 

 others collected in the held were kept under conditions as nearly 

 natural as possible. The last moth to emerge from them appeared 

 early in January ; the remainder later on being found to be dead. 

 No live pupae could be found in the fields in January. It would 

 therefore seem that the insect dies out each winter to come up again 

 from the south each sunnner. In reply to a circular enquiry, it was 

 ascertained that no one north of the Gulf States had seen the larvae 

 and that while the moths had been taken as far north as Ontario, all 

 the specimens taken in the North, with one exception, were captured 

 from late September to November. There was no record from the 

 New Fngland States. In the northern States, the moths appear to 

 be most frequently taken in western Pennsylvania and Ohio, i.e., due 

 north of Florida. All the available evidence seems to indicate that 

 Anticarsia gemmalilis is a wanderer in the northern States, like Alabama 

 argillacea. This moth does not appear to be generally abundant in 

 the West Indies, and apparently is not troublesome in Porto Rico, but 

 is reported to be common in Cuba. A. gemmatilis appears to be a 

 sub-tropical species ill-adapted to regions of frost, but it is not the 

 direct action of the cold that exterminates the insect at Gainesville. 

 Pupae lying exposed on the ground were not injured by an exception- 

 ally low temperature of 22°. The factor which prevents their surviving 

 even the mild winter of the latitude of Gainesville is their imperfect 

 hibernation. A few warm days in winter cause the moths to emerge 

 from the pupie, when the absence of food results in their death without 

 progeny. In April, or even late March, the insects would, in many 

 cases, find suitable host-plants before death.. It was found that 

 though caterpillars in the laboratory ate sparingly of some of the .wild 

 and cultivated leguminaceous plants, lucerne being the least disliked, 

 they would not grow, and undoubtedly all would have died had not 



