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THE AMEKICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ave deeply scolloped, especiall)' the frout ones, 

 and the body is furnished with lateral tufts. 

 When at rest the abdomen is curiously curved 

 up in the air. 



SOUTHERN NOTES. 



IIY .1. PARISH STELLE, SAVANXAII. TEIfN. 



The CoJiiNG Cotton Wousi. — We have a class 

 of croakers in the South — and I suppose every 

 section has them — who arc continually trying- 

 to discourage better and more useful people 

 than themselves, by predicting some serious 

 calamity for the future, and pretending to base 

 their predictions on certain unfailing signs and 

 circumstances. In the spring they look at the 

 crawfish holes and predict a frightful drouth for 

 the approaching summer — such a drouth as will 

 render all previous work on the plantations a 

 mere waste of exertions. But the drouth fails 

 to come, and they say nothing about the failure 

 of a "sign;" in fact I am not sure but they 

 forget all about it: they go on with their wise 

 pi-edictions, however. The corn-husk appears 

 unusually thick in. consequence of there having 

 been a good season, and there they discover a 

 sign that has never failed — a remarkably early 

 frost and the tightest winter on record is to be 

 expected. It misses again — the next infallible 

 sign tui-ns up — some other most discouraging 

 thing is predicted, and so it goes on, ad infinitum. 



At present our croakers are prophecying ter- 

 rible ravages from the Cotton worm (^Anomis 

 xylina, Say), for the next season, and they are 

 g'iving several reasons for their position ; one 

 of which is that the insect is periodical in its 

 visits, like the Cicada, and that 1870 is the year 

 for its dreaded return on a large scale. 



Let me say to my Southern friends that this 

 is all a mistake. My experience has convinced 

 me that the insect in question is not periodical, 

 and that the fact of its appearing in greater 

 numbers some years than others, may be attrib- 

 uted simply to the character of the preceding 

 winter. If you notice the matter carefully you 

 will find it invariably the case that the cotton 

 caterpillar is worse after a mild winter than 

 after a severe one, all of which is doubtless 

 owing to the fact that frosts or freezes tend to 

 destroy the chrysalis of the insect. 



Last winter was a severe one at the South, 

 and the caterpillar was not so bad as usual; 

 though I remember that early in the season 

 there was almost a panic in some of the States, 

 growing out of certain newspaper reports to the 

 effect that the caterpillar had already appeared, 

 and that there would be no cotton raised. The 



people looked over their cotton on reading the 

 report, saw worms which they mistook for the 

 dreaded caterpillar, and almost gave over in 

 despair; and as a consequence we have many 

 pounds of cotton less to-day than we would 

 otherwise have had. There were no cotton 

 caterpillars anywhere in the South at the time 

 the false report got into circulation, and it all 

 grew out of either ignorance on the part of 

 reporters, or willful lying ou the part of specu- 

 lators. 



In this connection I propose giving a few 

 simple rules by which our planters — especially 

 those who are new in the South — may identify 

 the true Cotton caterpillar from other compara- 

 tively unimportant worms that appear among 

 the plants. There is one known as the "Grass 

 worm" that looks very much like it — doubtless 

 the very individual that caused the scare last 

 season. There is sufficient difference in their 

 appearance, however, to render it an easy task 

 to- distinguish them apart, wlien one knows 

 where to look for the difference. The true Cot- 

 ton worm has six front feet, two anal and eight 

 ventral ; the two foremost of the ventral being 

 very small, and having no apparent office to 

 perform in the movements of the insect; while 

 the feet of the Grass worm are all perfectly 

 formed, and all brought into use when moving 

 from place to place. The Cotton worm bends 

 itself up in order to move, something after the 

 manner of the span or measuring worm, while 

 the Grass worm moves smoothly along simply 

 by the action of its feet. These characteristics 

 alone would enable you to distinguish the two 

 worms, but there are still others, one or two of 

 which I may mention. The Cotton worm has 

 a habit of doubling itself up suddenly when 

 disturbed, and springing some distance, whereas 

 the Grass worm simply rolls itself up and lies 

 motionless. When about to change, the Cotton 

 worm spins a loose cocoon or web among the 

 leaves of the plant, some distance from the 

 ground, while the Grass worm goes into the 

 ground without having first spun any web at all . 



There is a great difference in the appearance 

 of the two moths, but I shall not take time to 

 mention it in this article. They are not far from 

 the same size, but.while at rest the wings of the 

 cotton moth lie back like those of an ordinary 

 fly, while those of the grass moth spread out 

 after the usual manner of moths. The wings 

 of the former are of a reddish-brown color, 

 with a dark spot having a light centre in the 

 middle of each, while the color of the latter is 

 a grayish-brown, clouded and barred witli 

 alternate light and dark shades, 



