Insects injurious to the Cotton Plant. 159 



of some use as a first step towards a history of the insects inju- 

 rious to the cotton plant ; and may bring this important subject to 

 the notice of Entomologists, especially of those who have oppor- 

 tunities of witnessing the ravages committed by these insects, 

 and induce them to record their observations, with a view of fur- 

 nishing information for a more complete illustration of the subject 

 hereafter. 



The Chenille, of Guiana and Bahamas. — Mr. Porter mentions 

 this caterpillar as follows: — " Another very serious peril to which 

 the plant is liable results from the ravages of an insect called the 

 cotton caterpillar, but more generally known upon cotton plantations 

 as the Chenille. This destroyer is generally about an inch or an 

 inch and a half in length ; its back and sides are glossy black ; a 

 single line of white runs clown the whole length of the back, at 

 its middle, and double white lines are seen at each side of the 

 single line, and running parallel to it. The belly is of a whitish 

 yellow colour, and is covered with a soft downy hair intermixed 

 with bristles, which are short and black. These insects have a 

 most rapacious appetite ; they sometimes appear singly, or in 

 small companies, but at other times are in such swarms that 

 whole fields of cotton plants, which gave no sign of their pre- 

 sence on the previous evening, are seen in the morning com- 

 pletely devoured, so that not a leaf, a flower, a pod, or a green 

 sprout remains. A very singular effect accompanies the ravages 

 of this little enemy. Although the insect itself gives out no 

 smell, and the plants are equally inodorous, yet while the Chenille 

 is feeding on its leaves, a strong and uncommonly fragrant smell 

 is perceptible at more than one hundred yards distance. This 

 army of caterpillars moves ofF to another field as soon as one is 

 destroyed ; and it appears that they exhibit great capriciousness 

 in the choice of their feeding grounds, and are often found com- 

 mencing their attacks in the centre of a field instead of at the 

 circumference, as might have been expected." — Tropical Agricul- 

 turist, pp. 24 and 25. 



Dr. Ure says, " the cotton plant of Guiana is particularly sub- 

 ject to the attacks of the Chenille." — lire's Cotton, p. 130. 



" The Army Worm of the United States is probably identical 

 with the Chenille, or is a caterpillar very similar to it in its mode 

 of carrying on its ravages. The visits of the Chenille seldom 

 recur more frequently than once in three years ; its whole exist- 

 ence is limited to twenty-seven days, nine of which it passes in 

 the form of a moth." — Trop. Agric. p. 26. 



