195 



stance ; they are always laid close togetliei- and perfectly 

 uncovered, in irregular patches. May these not have been 

 the cocoons of minute ichneumons enveloped in their loose 

 5ilk. 



I saw the worms at work in an oat field belonging to Mr. 

 Everett at the Rock, Middleboro', Mass. ; it was the only 

 "field in that vicinity which was troubled by them, as far as 

 I could learn Irom the neighbors. I am not certain but I 

 think that this sloped down to a meadow from which they 

 may have come. I put some of them in a box and carried 

 them home with me ; they went into the ground July 31, to 

 transform into pup^e ; it took them two or three days to 

 cast their larva skins and become pupge, and on the 16th of 

 August they came out perfect moths. 



The time of appearance varies in different localities; accord- 

 ing to Mr. Kirkpatrick, in Ohio below the latitude of about 

 40° N., they were two or four weeks earlier than north of 

 that line. In Sydney they changed into pupaB June 16th, 

 into moths July 7th, while only eighty miles fiarther north, 

 m Cuyahoga Co., the caterpillars were observed, Aug. 1, 

 -changed to pupae Aug. 6th, and allowing at least a fortnight 

 to transform, they probably turned to moths Aug. 20th. It 

 seems very strange that so little difference in space, should 

 make so much in time, over six weeks to eighty miles, and 

 yet they could not have been different broods. The worms 

 I found at Middleboro' came out Aug. 16th, about the same 

 .latitude as the brood at Cuyahoga Co., which came out 

 about the same time. In Dan vers Mass., Mr. S. P. Fowler, 

 noticed them first, Aug. 1, a little later than I found them 

 ,at Middleboro'. Probably this difference would be much 

 increased if we should take greater distances, and we should 

 find in the Southern States, there were two broods, while 

 there was only one farther North. 



I have never seen any description of the eggs of the army 

 worm nor of the young larvae. Mr. Walsh thinks that there 

 are not two broods in a year at the North, and consequently 

 vthat the eggs must be laid in the summer. Mr. Fowler's 

 observation would go to prove this. I hare room for 

 only an abstract of his reasons : First, — they are never 

 .found in meadows the year after seeding, while if the eggs 



