﻿OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 35 



onstrated the fact. Further, we may conclude with sufficient certainty 

 that the eggislaidby the parent moth and hatches outside her body. 

 Analogy would also indicate that it is laid on the insect's preferred 

 food-plants; it being a very general law in insect life that the parent, 

 with wonderful instinct, commits her eggs to the plant on which the 

 larvae or young are destined to feed, if these are herbivorous by 

 nature. Analogy is not, however, an infallible guide, here, for we 

 have seen in the case of the Fall Army Worm that the parent fre- 

 quently deposits her eggs on the leaves of deciduous trees, which 

 leaves the worms do not feed upon, but from which, upon hatching, 

 they instinctively descend, so as to get at more congenial herbage be- 

 low (Rep. Ill, p. 114). Yet there are many recorded facts and observa- 

 tions which indicate that the Army Worm moth follows the more gen- 

 eral rule, and that she commits her eggs to the stalks of perennial 

 grasses and of cereals, whether these be cut or still standing. 



Nevertheless, the fact remains that no one has ever seen the eggs 

 of the Army Worm moth, naturally deposited;* and even if we admit 

 the correctness of the last conclusion, it still remains conjectural as to 

 whether they are laid within or upon the stalks, single or in masses, 

 in the Summer, in the Fall or in the Spring. Nothing but direct ob- 

 servation will fully and satisfactorily answer these questions; though 

 we may by proper scientific method come to pretty safe conclusions 

 regarding them. 



Alive to the importance and interest attaching to these questions, 

 I made every provision last summer that I deemed necessary to their 

 settlement. But 'Uhe best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft 

 a-gley! " Having to leave for Europe just as the worms were entering 

 the ground to pupate, I gave full and explicit directions to my clerk, 

 Mr. Otto Lugger, for carrying on the requisite experiments and ob- 

 servations, with instructions to spare neither time nor means in pursu- 

 ance of the object in view. The insect was abundant on many farms 

 in St. Louis and Jefferson counties, and everything seemed propitious 

 for fruitful observations. Mr. Lugger proved, by extensive breeding 

 of the moths and attempts to obtain the, eggs in-doors, that which I 

 have repeatedly proved in previous years, viz : that the eggs cannot 

 be so obtained. Beyond that, his work was fruitless ; for unfortunately 

 the rains in June and July were so frequent and copious, as to materi- 

 ally hinder out-door observations. Search for the moths in fields 

 where the worms had swarmed a few weeks before was so vain as to 



*The only purported description of the eggs is by Mr. S. P. Fowler, in a letter to F. W. Putnam, 

 quoted by Mr. C. A. Shurtleflf of Brookline, Mass., (Proc. Essex Ins. Vol. Ill) in bis ' ' Eeport on the 

 Army Worm;" aud which evidently refers to Microgastcr cocoons. 



