DR. GORHAM'S PAPER. Ill 



division extended tlieir march much farther, sometimes traveling half a mile from the 

 point whence they started, perishing by cart-loads for the want of food and the many 

 casualties to which their journey subjected them, such as carriage- wheels, heat of the 

 sun, and the rapacity of birds. 



Here, then, it would appear was an end of the cotton-worm for a season at least, 

 for those which yet remain in chrysalis in the fence-corners will chan ge to the fly in 

 ten days. But where are now the cotton leaves upon which the pregnant female is to 

 deposit her eggs ? There is not one left. If they are placed on any other leaf the eggs 

 may hatch, but the worm must perish, as we have just seen them perishing by my- 

 riads while wending their way through a various and luxuriant herbage in search of 

 that food intended for them by nature. In ten days from the time that the worm be- 

 comes a chrysalis on the borders of the cotton fields a host of flies are seen issuing 

 therefrom ; they go forth in search of food for their forthcoming progeny. Now it 

 is to be found their days are numbered; in ten more, if they meet with no cotton 

 leaves, they themselves must die, and thus put an end to the whole race. But their 

 search is continued, and now when the weary insect is ready to finish its term of days, 

 a tender but sparse foliage crowns the leafless twigs of the cotton plant; on them the 

 eggs are deposited ; they hatch, the worm eats, returns again to its chrysalis. The 

 cotton stalk still puts forth new leaves, they grow and expand until the fields again 

 look green ; ten days, aye, forty, elapse, yet there is not a worm to be found. One 

 would have thought that this second crop of leaves would scarcely have been sufficient 

 for a single repast for them, yet the food that they so lately devoured with such vora- 

 ciousness is now left untouched. What is the matter? Why don't they eat; their 

 food is spread before them? Read on, the answer will be found in the sequel. Let 

 us examine the cause. In nearly every fourth leaf we find a chrysalis writhing and 

 contorting itself at the touch. Ah, here is the explanation of the difficulty, this is no 

 ten days' chrysalis, but that in which it is to hibernate, possibly for one winter, per- 

 chance for twenty. Let us take a pocketful of these home and place them beneath 

 tumblers, and wait patiently to see what they will produce. If I had found a treas- 

 ure my delight could not have been greater than that I experienced at the idea of 

 unraveling this mystery. But man is prone to disappointment, as we shall soon see. 

 About the 15th of November the insect appeared, but, mirabile dictu, as different from 

 the cotton-fly as it is possible to suppose one insect could differ from another. It be- 

 longed altogether to a different family, a description of which I give as follows : 



Now, it is evident from its specific character, as well as from its parasitic nature, 

 this insect belongs to that numerous class called ichneumons, of which there are up- 

 wards of five hundred species. As I am not at present in possession of any practical 

 work on entomology, I cannot determine the species of this ichneumon ; but to show 

 that it difters in some respects from the family to which it belongs, I will quote a 

 paragraph from a work before me, in which are set forth some peculiarities belong- 

 ing to that class of insects as a genus : 



"The whole of this singular genus have been denominated parasitical, on account 

 of the very extraordinary manner in which they provide for the future support of 

 their young. The fly feeds on the honey of flowers, and, when about to lay her eggs, 

 perforates the body of some other insect, or its larvae with its sting or instrument at 

 the end of the abdomen, and then deposits them. The eggs in a few days hatch, and 

 the young larvae, which resemble minute white maggots, nourish themselves with the 

 juices of the foster parent, which, however, continues to move about and feed until 

 near the time of its changing into a chrysalis, when the larvos of the ichneumon 

 creep out by perforating the skin in various places, and, each spinning itself up in a 

 small oval silken case, changes into a chrysalis, and after a certain period thej 

 emerge in the state of complete ichneumons." 



It will be seen that there is a peculiarity attached to this ichneumon not include 1 

 in the above description : that of appropriating the chrysalis as well as the larvse < f 

 other insects to the use of their young. All ichneumons that I ever read of spin 

 their own chrysalis, but this is the prince of parasites, for not content with eating the 



