CHAPTEE II. 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



NOMENCLATIVE. 



Of popular names the boll- worm has one for almost every plant upon 

 which it feeds and for every country which it inhabits ; and as it is, 

 as will soon be shown, almost cosmopolitan and a very general feeder, 

 these names are many. Throughout cotton-growing States it is very gen- 

 erally known as the loll-icorm when it occurs upon cotton ; when it occurs 

 upon corn it is called the corn-worm, and as such it is known iu those 

 Western States in which it infests the corn crop. In many Southern 

 States it is known in the early part of the season as the corn-bud worm. 

 Where found upon tomatoes it is called the tomato worm. These four 

 names are the ones by which it is best known in this country. As we 

 shall consider it only in its relation to cotton, we shall speak of it as the 

 boll- worm, except where it is necessary to make use of one of the other 

 titles. 



As to the scientific classification of the boll-worm moth, we may safely 

 say that it is a near relation to the cotton- worm moth. It belongs to 

 the same order, Lepidoptera; the same section, Heterocera; the same 

 family, Noctuidae ; and the same tribe, Noctuae.* Its genus is Heliothis 

 of Huebner, and its specific name, armigera, given it by the same author. 



The scientific nomenclature of this insect has suffered from the intro- 

 duction of but a single synonym so far as we are aware. It was origi- 

 nally described by Huebner as Heliothis armigera. In 1863, in a paper 

 entitled "Additions to the Catalogue of U. S. Lepidoptera," Mr. Grote 

 described a male specimen, taken on Long Island, New York, as Helio- 

 this umbrosus n. sp., attaching to the description the "observation" 



Approaches to the European H. armigera, which species has, however, a discal mark 

 on the posterior wings, and is otherwise specifically distinct. It appears also from the 

 description of H. exprimam Walker, C. B. M. Noct., p. 687, to have some resemblance 

 with that species, but the expressions "(alae anticae) orbiculari et reuiformi magnis 

 ferrugineo marginatis," and " (alae posticae) litura discali," do not apply to the species 

 I have just described. t 



* For brief characterizations of these subdivisions see Part I, Chapter I. 



tThe description is as follows : 



"Anterior wings, yellowish-gray, crossed by several indistinct irregular darker shaded 

 lines. Discal spot blackish, beyond which is a row of minute black dots, one on each 

 nervule, running parallel with the outer margin of the wing and connected with each 

 other by a faint waved line, the curvatures turned inward toward the base of the wing ; 

 fringes dark. Posterior wings yellowish-white, without markings, except a broad 

 blackish band running parallel with the outer margin, and which is partly interrupted 

 near the center by a space of a similar color to the rest of the wing ; fringes white. 



