94 REPORT UPON COTTON INSECTS. 



of various kinds of weeds, ot which I gave you a partial list some time ago. To this 

 you cau adi Passiflora incarnata. The great majority of these chrysalides have not 

 yet hatched out. 



NOVEMBER 4. 



The evening of October 26 was warm (0(5 at 7 p. m.), and more than 50 cotton, 

 moths were counted at my baited tree. It rained before morning, then cleared oif 

 cold, so that on the '27th and 28th no moths were seen. On the 29th it was warmer 

 and cloudy, rained slightly, and I counted 7 or 8 moths. On the 30th, 3lst, 1st, and 2d, 

 oold and frosty nights ; no moths seen. During this last cold spell ice has formed in 

 thin sheets, and I am anxious to know how it has affected the moths. One has hatched 

 out from the chrysalides, which I have under cover since the cold nights of the last 

 week. 



NOVEMBER 11. 



I judge by the scarcity of the cotton-moths since cold weather that they are not able 

 to stand the cold, and have either been killed or forced to seek secure quarters. I 

 have found none yet in bark of trees or elsewhere. Some of the chrysalides of the 

 last brood are still rolled in the leaves in the cotton field ; but a few which I examined 

 some days ago seem to have died. These chrysalides are slightly shriveled up, and 

 ome of them are certainly decaying, if I may judge by the smell when they are 

 opened. 



The following extracts from letters received by this department from 

 Professor Willet will indicate the details of the disappearance of the 



last brood of 1878 in Georgia: 



OCTOBER 6. 



I was in the cotton fields some hours this morning. The condition of things is about 

 this : Very few larva) ; mostly greenish-yellow in color. Few pupae ; moths mostly out ; 

 all will be out in two or three days. Many moths, probably a majority just out from 

 pupa). Considerable number of eggs; none some days since. I hear of caterpillars 

 in small numbers in most of the State below this. This brood of caterpillars has 

 webbed up almost entirely on the cotton stalks on which they fed. Where those stalks 

 were entirely divested of leaves, a few went to weeds near by. They seem to have no 

 disposition to ramble, eating the leaves, investing chrysalides, the involucre of bolls, 

 and even young bolls before they would crawl to adjacent stalks which had not been 

 touched. 



The moths, as yet, are near the small, isolated patches invaded by them as cater- 

 pillars, and on the southwest side of field towards which a strong northeaster has 

 driven them some days. I do not find many in the grass and stubble on borders of 

 the field. 



OCTOBER 10. 



I send box, with about a dozen each, of larvae and pupae, all I found yesterday in 

 walking over 10 to 15 acres. The moths are much scattered, and attractives put out 

 night before last drew only two or three. I do not find that they are leaving the field 

 for shelter. There are no dead trees nor stumps in which they may hide ; but I scare 

 up none in the waste patches of grass and weeds on one side of the field. If it was 

 now August, we should have the promise of a largo crop of worms soon. It is of in- 

 terest to know whether they will appear in October. 



JCTOBER 18. 



The situation in the field here is as follows: A few moths; most rather ragged; a 

 few, new and bright, just out from late pupae; some eggs, a few green and fresh, 

 others dried up ; no larvae. I searched diligently with a glass for young larvae, but 



