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No caterpillar of any butterfly, except Tkecla pceas so far as I am 

 aware, feeds iipou cotton, altliougli several species of butterflies are 

 found in numbers flying' through the cotton fields, alighting ever and 

 anon upon the cotton blossoms to feed upon their sweets. 



Three butterflies, CalUdryas euhule Linn., Terias nicippe Oram., and 

 Euptoieta daudia Cram., are so frequently seen in cotton fields through- 

 out the whole cotton belt that it is but natural for the cotton grower to 

 suspect them to be genuine cotto«i insects. They are mentioned here 

 as of special interest on account of a remarkable theory in regard to 

 one of them, originating and held by Mr. John W. Brown, the planter 

 with whom I was staying, namely, that Cullidryas enhtilc, which he 

 called the "vandal fly," produces the boll- worm {Heliothis armiger). 

 Notwithstanding I explained to Mr. Brown the utter impossibility of 

 such widely separated species originating from one another, the first 

 belonging to the section lihopalocera, or butterflies, and the second to 

 the section Heterocera, or moths, he most strenuously held to his 

 theory, and claimed to have proven it by a series of experiments carried 

 on for a period of three years. 



It is scarcely necessary to state that at no time did I believe such a 

 remarkable theory. Mr. Brown, however, was so positive in his state- 

 ments about rearing his " vandal-fly" that I, for a time, thought it quite 

 probable the caterpillar might feed on cotton, and my exi)eriments with 

 it, therefore, were conducted more toward proving or disproving its 

 food-habits. 



I shall enter into no details respecting my experiments. Sutfice to 

 say, several efforts were made to induce the butterflies to oviposit on 

 cotton, but all proved unsuccessful, the "vandal-fly" again and again 

 refusing to lay its eggs on cotton. I ascertained that its food-plant was 

 Cassia and allied species; and, on x^rocuring some wild coftee {Cassia 

 occidentalis), Lad no difficulty in getting it to oviposit. I inclosed the 

 butterfly in a gauze net with this food plant, and from the eggs thus 

 obtained succeeded in hatching the young larva?. 



It is in the section Heterocera, or moths, that we find the most serious 

 pests of the cotton plant, but only three species cause the planter any 

 serious apprehension, and when they appear he should at once resort 

 to the best remedies known for their destruction, or he will run the 

 risk of losing his crop. These are the larvje or cateri)illars of three 

 nocturnal moths, namely, the boll-worm (Heliothis armif/er Hiibn.), the 

 cotton-worm or cotton leaf-worm [Aletia ar(/illacea Hiibn.), and the cot- 

 ton cut- worm {Proden ia UncafeUa Harvey). The habits and destructive- 

 ness of the first two have been theisubject of such thorough investiga- 

 tion by this Department and the U. S. Entomological Commission that 

 very little remains to be discovered respecting them, and they, there- 

 fore, need not be mentioned here. 



The cotton cut-worm {Prodcnia JincateUa Harvey) is not mentioned 

 among cotton insects by either Comstock or lliley, although iu reading 



