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that sways the destinies of the world ? a hand that stays the 

 devastations of plague, pestilence and famine ? The cotton- 

 fly belongs to that numerous class of insects known to natural- 

 ists under the term of phalcna or moth tribe. The following 

 are its specific characters, without the technicalities made use 

 of by the naturalist, so far as they could well be avoided. 

 Antenna, or little horns projecting from the head, setaceous or 

 terminating in a point like a bristle, of a drab color, five linos 

 in length, being about half the length of the body. Wings 

 incumbent, deflexa; under surface of thorax or breast of a 

 dull silvery white, insensibly terminating on the abdomen, and 

 wings in a color tending to a russet ; the upper surface of the 

 wings and back varying somewhat in different individuals, 

 but generally of a changeable golden color with ferruginous 

 zigzag lines traversing the surface transversely ; posterior 

 margin bordered with a narrow strip of pale pink color, with 

 small denticulations. On the upper surface of the wings there 

 are two black spots, one on each, about the middle of the base; 

 legs white, the four posteriors very long when compared with 

 the front ones, which are short and slender; the tail simple. 

 The length of this insect is about nine lines from head to tail. 

 Expansion of the wings, at the tips, about the same measure- 

 ment. To conclude, I will add that the shape of this moth 

 is very much like that of an isosceles triangle, with the line 

 forming the base inflected inwardly about two lines. This 

 peculiar figure is produced by the exterior angle of the upper 

 wings projecting beyond that of the interior angle. 



During the present year, the time that my observations 

 commenced for the first time, the cotton-fly again made its ap- 

 pearance in the latter part of August, at first making but 

 little progress, but about the middle of September their num- 

 bers increased so prodigiously, that in many instances they 

 would eat over a field of several hundred acres in four or eight 



