55 



Adenostemma viscosum, Ageratum conyzoides, bean, beet, cab- 

 bage, Canna, cockle burr, Coleus, cotton. Datura, Euxolus, 

 Ipomoea, Pelargonium, potato (both Irish and sweet), Setaria 

 verticillata, Sonchus, sunflower, tomato, wild yam, and a few 

 other undetermined wild plants. 



(2) Spodoptera exigua (Hiibner). 



This moth was first recorded from the Hawaiian Islands by 

 Butler (1880) who described it as Caradrina venosa. His 

 description was from specimens collected near Honolulu, by 

 Blackburn, who said it was "rare." "Macrolepidoptera," of 

 the Fauna Hawaiiensis, gives Kona, Hawaii, and Lahaina, Maui, 

 as places where it had been collected. 



It is a widely distributed moth, being recorded from Great 

 Britain, Southern Europe, Africa, Southern Asia, China, Japan, 

 Australia, Hawaiian Islands, and Western United States. In 

 the latter country it has been reported from Oregon, California, 

 Colorado and New Mexico, where it is known as the Beet Army 

 Worm (Caradrina (Laphygma) exigua Hbn.) 



A very complete account of its depredations, habits, life 

 history, etc., together with figures, is given in Bui. U. S. Div. 

 Ent. 33 n. s., pp. 37-46, 1902. 



It is not nearly so common on these Islands as Spodoptera 

 mauritia. I have found it on only two occasions. The first was 

 at Pahala, Hawaii, Dec. 5, 1905. A large number of larvae of 

 all sizes were found feeding on Castor Oil plants (Ricinus com- 

 munis) , in a small gulch in a sugar cane field of the plantation of 

 the Hawaiian Agricultural Co. Several egg clusters were also 

 found, which on hatching proved to be this same species. 



The egg clusters were on the upper surface of a leaf. In one 

 cluster, 40 eggs were counted. They were spherical, in regular 

 rows, one layer deep, and the cluster densely covered with 

 greyish hairs from the body of the moth. 



One cluster of 100 was found which had just hatched. The 

 larvae were two mm. long, green with black heads, and finely 

 pubescent, each hair in a tiny black tubercle. 



While young they fed gregariously on the upper surface of a 

 leaf along a vein where the leaf was somewhat depressed, and 

 they ate only the green substance of the leaf, leaving the lower 

 epidermis. They were covered by a slight web. As they 

 increase in size they become more separated, often feeding 



