462 The Zoologist — October, 1866. 



The Secretary read a communication respecting the injury done to the cotton crop 

 in Louisiana by the " army worm," the larva of Heliothis armifjera. It slated that 

 the crop was in danj^er of being entirely eaten up. Two years ago the planters of 

 Louisiana, tempted by the high price of cotton, which was then selling at fifieeupence 

 a pound, began to cultivate cotton, which liad been alniosi abandoned. The sugar 

 cane became of secondary importance. But ihe caterpillar arrived, aud swept away 

 the hopes of the planters in a few days. The noise made by the multitudes of 

 voracious insects was described as audible at the distance of a mile, and to resemble the 

 crackling of a house on fire. It was thought for a long lime that the army only visited 

 Lower Louisiana, but this was an error; in 1788, these insects destroyed "280 tons of 

 cotton in the Bahamas ; they caused the cultivation of cotton to be given up in many 

 of the West Indian Islands, aud the case was almost the same in Egypt; in 1793 this 

 insect visited Georgia, and in 1800 it ravaged South Carolina ; four years later they 

 descended on the whole of Louisiana; and in 18.25 they ravaged the whole of the 

 Southern Slates, and it was very difScult even to get seed for the following year. The 

 last general visitation was in 1845. The army worm appears often in Guiana and 

 other parts of South America. The mischief done by these creatures is, foriunalely, 

 not always of the same serious extent ; sometimes even the insects, when they come 

 late, as they did last year, thin ihe seed pods, and produce a positive benelit. If it 

 were not so, considering that they have apjiearcd twenty-lhree times in the United 

 States since 1793, the growing of cotton would be hazardous to be continued. The 

 most favourable circumstances for the production of the army worm are heat, moisture, 

 and clouded skies, up to the end uf the month of June ; when such is the case the 

 visitation is looked upon as certain; it was so this year. The caterpillars cannot sup- 

 port great heat and coniinued drought; in Louisiana and the other States of the South, 

 as well as in the Bahamas, a torrid summer kills them, especially where the soil is 

 sandy. In 1826 the creatures appeared on the 1st of August in Louisiana and North 

 Carolina, but hot weather set in, and by the 2;3rd of the same month they had all 

 disappeared. 



Mr. S. Stevens exhibited a house-fly to which were attached six Chelifers; and 

 had observed another upon which were no less than eight of these parasites. 



Mr. F. Moore read the following extract from the ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of 

 Bengal,' 18(i6, p. 73, respecting the synchronous emission of light by fireflies (see 

 ' Proceedings,' 1865, pp. 94, 101) :— 



" Camp, near Myanoung, Nov. 22, 1865. 



" During a visit to Calcutta, a few months ago, Mr. Groie drew my attention to a 

 sort of controversy which had been started at home, touching the habit, which fireflies 

 were stated to exhibit occasionally, of a concurrent exhibition of their light, by vast 

 multiludes acting in unison ; a statement which appeared to have been somewhat 

 sceptically received. Mr. Grote does not appear to have ever witnessed this pheno- 

 menon in Bengal, and questioned me if I had ever observed any confirmatory 

 instance. Fireflies are tolerably well known, of course, to ihe resident in Bengal, but 

 1 had never there observed any such habit among the countless fireflies, which form 

 such fiery-like ornaments to the shrubberies about Calcutta. In Pegu, however, 

 I have witnessed the exhibition in question ; myriads of fireflies emitting their light, 

 and again relapsing into darkness, in the most perfect rythmic unison. I much regret 

 that I did not secure specimens, but the circumstances were as follows:— I had halted 



