210 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



as "Army-worms." The real Army-worm (Leu- 

 cania imipunctata, Haw.) feeds upon grasses 

 and cereals, and received its pojjular name from 

 its habit of marching from field to field in im- 

 mense armies. That this species may at once 

 be recognized and distinguished from the insects 

 presently to be described, we publish an account 

 of it, with illustrations, in another part of the 

 present number of our Journal, to which the 

 reader cau refer. 



In the northwest corner of the State of New 

 York, the Tent-caterpillar of the forest (CHsio- 

 irtg. H70 campa sylvatica, Harr.) has also 

 been erroneously known by the 

 name of "Army-worm." We 

 briefly sketched the history of 

 this species on page 208 of our 

 last number, and reproduce 

 herewith the figure of the worm 

 (Fig. 147). Though it may some- 

 times be found crawling along 

 roads in great nnmbers, and we 

 recently saw a great many run- 

 ning along a railroad track in the 

 lieat of the sun, yet this Tent- 

 caterpillar of the forest cannot 

 with propriety be called an 

 Army-worm, and our Eastern 

 frieiuls had best drop the title 

 white and rufuu.. ' ^nd avoid confusion lu tlu iutuie 

 Again, the Cotton-worm { \nomi^ ii/bna, 

 Say), which we are now considciing, i^ ^clv 

 generally known by the name ot the "( otton 

 Army-worm," and often simph as "tin Aini\- 

 worm," in the South. The ti im as applud to 

 this species is not altogether inappio')iiat( , is 

 the worm frequently appeals in immense 

 armies, and when moved by ncceesitj wjII 

 travel over the ground in "solid phalanx , ' and 

 so long as the word "Cotton'' is atticliid— its 

 ravages being strictly confined to this plant- 

 there is no danger of its being confounded with 

 the true Army-worm. The term has further- 

 more received the sanction of custom in the 

 Soutiieru States, and of Mr. Glover in his De- 

 partment Keports. But there is in the South a 

 fourth insect {Laphnjijmt friigiperda, Sm. & 

 Abb.?) which is liciiULMilly known by this omin- 

 ous name; an insect which also will attack 

 cotton, though it prefers grass and weeds. This 

 last species in its habits resembles the true 

 Army-worm of the Middle States, more closely 

 perhaps than docs the Cotton Army-worm 

 under consideration, and Mr. Jos(^ph 15. Lyman, 

 in his recent work on "Cotton culture*"' (p. 92), 



calls it the "Army-worm ;" yet, to prevent con- 

 fusion, the cognomen should be discontinued, 

 and the term "Southern Grass-worm" (by 

 which term it is already very generally known) 

 should be strictly applied to this fourth species 

 of the so-called "Army-worms." 



The Cotton-worm was first scientifically de- 

 scribed by Mr. Thomas Say, in the year 1827. 

 In 1800, according to Dr. Capers,* it was first 

 noticed as a destroyer of cotton, and was like- 

 wise very destructive in 1804, 1825, and 1826. 

 Since the last date, as wc learn from old volumes 

 of the American Farmer, of Baltimore, Md., and. 

 from the Patent Office lleports, it has done more 

 or less damage to the crop almost annually, in 

 some part or other of the cotton-growing dis- 

 trict. As with the real grass-feeding Army- 

 worm of the Middle States, it swarms in par- 

 ticular years to such an extent as to utterly ruin 

 the crop, while in other years it is scarcely 

 noticed. This fact has led many to infer that 

 there is a stated periodicity in its returns in 

 such immense numbers; but the natural history 

 of the worm confutes such an idea, while the 

 records give no foundation for the inference. 

 The sudden increase or decrease of 'this, as of 

 other species of noxious insects, depends on 

 climatic, as well as on other equally potent in- 

 fluences. 



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The egg (Fig. 148 a) which produces the Cot- 

 ton-worm is round, flat, and of a translucent 

 pale green color, and when viewed under a lens 

 appears regularly ribbed. Tliesc eggs arc de- 

 posited upon till! under side of the leaves, and, 

 from their small size, are naturally difficult (^f 

 detection. Each female moth deposits frour400 

 to COO, and according to the late Thos. Affleck, 

 of Breiihani, Texas, they hatch two days after 

 being deposited, if the weather be moist and 

 warm. The worms (Fig. 148 b, i grown) at 



