THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ij 



vestigations during the past two years in 

 every State in the Union except South 

 Carolina and Florida (which have been 

 visited by Mr. Schwarz), together with 

 the experience and testimony of corres- 

 pondents and of special agents employed 

 in the investigation, confirm me in these 

 conclusions, and I will close the discussion 

 with two other suggestions that grow out 

 of this experience. 



1. It is quite certain that by far the 

 larger portion of the moths from the last 

 brood of worms perish in various ways 

 without perpetuating the species. All 

 those which fly North of the cotton belt 

 must needs thus perish, as doubtless do 

 all those that attempt to hibernate in the 

 Northern portion of said belt. The evi- 

 dence is strong that even in the hibernat- 

 ing portion of the belt, only the excep- 

 tional few, more favored than the rest and 

 remaining steadily torpid till early spring, 

 suvive to beget progeny. Those which 

 are aroused to activity during mild winter 

 weather, spend their force without finding 

 compensating nourishment, as there are 

 neither fruits, flowers, nor sweet-secreting 

 glands at that season wherewith to break 

 their long fast and sustain vitality. It is 

 for these reasons that the worms are gen- 

 erally less injurious after mild and change- 

 able winters and most to be dreaded after 

 severe and steady ones, and it may very 

 justly be argued that, did the larger pro- 

 portion of the moths survive, there would 

 be no chance to grow cotton. Like perish- 

 ing of the bulk of most insects that hiber- 

 nate above ground, is, in fact, an acknowl- 

 edged rule in entomology. 



2. The localities where Aletia doubtless 

 hibernates and where, consequently, the 

 earliest worms appear, seem to be more 

 common in the Western parts of the cotton 

 belt than in the Atlantic States. Since the 

 civil war the almost complete abandonment 

 of cotton cultivation on the Sea Islands off 

 the coast of Florida and Georgia has evi- 

 dently reduced the number hibernating 

 there, and, in so far, protected the more 

 Northern and Western portion of the 

 Atlantic States from the immigration of 



the moth from those quarters. In Texas, 

 on the contrary, the cultivation of cotton 

 has been constantly increasing since that 

 time, and, consectaneously, the number of 

 favorable hibernating points, and the risk 

 of serious harm there over extended areas, 

 have also increased. 



PEACH TREE BORER INFESTING ALMONDS. 



During the past half dozen years the 

 double white and pink almond shrubs grow- 

 ing in my garden have shown signs of be- 

 ing badly diseased. At first I thought 

 little of it, as these shrubs are plentiful and 

 multiply quite rapidly by suckers, but so 

 many died outright, that I was led to make 

 a careful examination of their roots, and 

 in these, and in the stems just below the 

 surface, large numbers of the larva of the 

 common peach tree borer {^geria exitiosd) 

 were found. Peach trees being but little 

 grown in my neighborhood the borers took 

 to the almonds and here kept at work un- 

 til few good plants are left. Having quite 

 a large number of the almonds and seeing 

 that the borers were well established, I con- 

 cluded to leave them undisturbed in order 

 to watch their progress during the summer, 

 and ascertain if Harris was correct in say- 

 ing that the moths appeared at all times 

 from June until October. At various times 

 during the summer I dug up almond plants, 

 and invariably found grubs of all sizes, 

 from those a few days old up to the nearly 

 or quite full grown, but no pupse were dis- 

 covered under the bark or in the earth 

 immediately surrounding the wood, a fact 

 that leads me to believe that the grubs go 

 a much greater distance from their burrows 

 before passing into the pupae state than is 

 generally supposed. Pupae that are so fre- 

 quently found in the gum exuding from 

 peach trees are probably imprisoned there 

 and cannot get away, else they would do 

 so and find a more congenial place for 

 passing through their final transformation. 

 Harris states that the pupK are found in 

 the gum of peach trees ; also under the 

 bark and in the ground ; but so far as my 

 own observations extend I conclude that 

 they will always seek the latter. 



