﻿OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 43 



We may justly conclude, therefore, that the disputants who have 

 been contending, on the one hand for the Fall and on the other for 

 the Spring oviposition of the Army Worm Moth, have, as in so many 

 other cases of like nature, both been right and both been wrong. 

 They were looking at the same shield from opposite sides. I am very 

 much inclined to believe that whether the moths preponderate in 

 Spring or Fall, even in the vicinity of St. Louis, depends much upon 

 the character of the seasons. A large experience in rearing insects 

 points conclusively to the fact that a certain amount of moisture is 

 requisite for the proper development of all species that transform in 

 the ground in a simple cavity; and that during excessive drouth pupae 

 so situated will remain dormant and unchanged for weeks, when a 

 singje moistening of the ground will revive them, permit the retarded 

 transformation and release the imago from its parched prison. 



IX WHAT STATE DOES THE INSECT HIBERNATE ? 



This question is intimately connected with the preceding one, and, 

 like it, will not admit of a single unqualified answer. Accepting as 

 facts that the eggs are laid both in Fall and Spring, the following 

 questions are to be considered: 1st, whether the eggs laid in Autumn 

 hibernate as such, or whether the larvas first hatch and hibernate 

 while small; 2d, whether those laid in Spring are by moths which 

 issued at that season, after hibenating as chrysalides, or by such as 

 issued the preceding Fall and hibernated as moths. 



As bearing on the first question it is interesting to note that the 

 European species of the genus, so far as their habits are known, hi- 

 bernate in the larva state. Thus Leucania lithargyria Esper, and Z. 

 turca (Linn.) hibernate as young larvee, while L. comma (Linn.) win- 

 ters as a full grown larva, according to Speyer. Quite a large propor- 

 tion of our closely allied cut-worms are, also, known to thus hibernate. 

 It would seem, therefore that, in default of direct observation, we 

 have no good reason for assuming that the eggs laid in Autumn neces- 

 sarily hibernate as such. But while these analogies make it probable 

 that the insect may winter in the larva state, all the other facts point 

 to the conclusion that the proportion that so winter, if any, is very 

 small. Instead of abounding in a wet Spring when their favorite 

 haunts are overflowed, they would be well nigh drowned out, on the 

 hypothesis that they had been wintering there as larvas. As bearing 

 on the second question we have certain facts which indicate that 

 some of the pupas hibernate, the proportion doubtless increasing as 

 we go north. I have myself never had any of the worms remain in 

 chrysalis through June, but Prof. Thomas records that less than half 

 of the pupae which he caged hatched out, and that "only a part are 



