83 



judge, to the genus Amphalocera. These are what I found in the 

 pods sent me, and the probabihty is that this rough, hairy plant 

 does not form part of the food of this insect, though some of the 

 smoother species may. 



As may be supposed, an insect having so wide a range, and feed- 

 ing upon such a diversity of plants, will be known in different 

 localities by different names, as it seems to be more destructive to 

 one or another of the plants that forms its food. Hence, in the 

 South, where it is perhaps second to the Cotton-worm in destroying 

 the staple of that region, it is known as the Boll-worm, because it 

 feeds principally upon the growing bolls or pods or the unopened 

 flower buds. Where cotton is seldom or never raised, but where 

 this caterpillar disputes the claim of the farmer to his roasting ears, 

 it is called the Corn-worm. Even in the South, where the worm is 

 found on both cotton and corn, it has been common to speak of it 

 by such names as would indicate the crops destroyed. If tomatoes, 

 for some reason, form the staple of a section of country, then the 

 habitual finding it half buried in the tomatoes gains for it the name 

 of Tomato-worm ; and it has usually been customary to write of the 

 insect under one or the other of these titles, according to the class 

 to be benefited by the writing. 



But little need be said of this species from a purely scientific 

 standpoint. It is admitted by entomologists that it belongs to the 

 order Lepkkrptera, family Noctuidce, and genus and species as given 

 at the head of this article. The habits of the larvae of this family' 

 differ in that some are leaf-eating, while others have a boring habit, 

 though not in the sense of the wood-boring beetles, for the boring is 

 done in tissue comparatively soft or in hollow stems. A classifica- 

 tion of this kind, while it does not place those together that quite 

 agree in structure, would have its advantages when we consider the 

 ways and means of preventing destruction to crops by them. This 

 would place the species of Heliothis and allied genera with Gortyna 

 and its allies. But this need not be discussed further here. 



AS A BOLL-WORM. 



As the northern portions of the United States are but little inter- 

 ested in the cultivation of cotton, and as Professor J. Henry Com- 

 stock has given a somewhat detailed account of the work of this 

 insect in the cotton-fields, this branch of the subject may be passed 

 over lightly. In doing this I shall give what will be practically a 

 digest of Prof. Comstock's paper. 



It appears that the eggs are deposited shortly after twilight, when 

 the moths first begin to fly. Mr. Glover and Professor Riley state 

 substantially that the eggs are deposited singly on the outside of 

 the involucre surrounding the flower-bud or the young boll, but 

 Professor Comstock states that he has found them upon other parts 

 of the plants quite as much as upon the involucre. As soon as the 

 egg is hatched, the young larva feeds upon the tender tissue of 

 whatever portion of the plant it is upon. Soon after this, it begins 

 to bore its way through the covering to the boll and into the boll 

 itself; but if the egg is deposited upon a leaf or a stem, it may be 



