96 



of dwellings. All observations serve to show that the attracting of 

 the moths to ordinary oil lights is an utterly hopeless task. 



Brilliant arc lights are an attraction, however, and during the early 

 part of August, at Paris, along the business street, within a space of 

 four blocks, sometimes as many as forty or fifty of the moths could be 

 counted near the lights. Saloons and fruit stands offered especial 

 inducements, no doubt on account of the odors of fermenting fruit, etc. 

 Professor Morgan^ mentions a similar instance: 



Last season, in collecting by an electric light on the university campus, under which 

 the crab grass had been permitted to grow and go to seed, great numbers of a light- 

 colored moth were seen to be perched upon the heads and stems of the crab grass, 

 from 20 to 50 feet from the arc light. Upon collecting a few they were found to be 

 specimens of the bollworm moth. ^ . * * During the entire evening not a single 

 specimen was seen to fly up to the light, but all remained at some distance from it. 



Chittenden^ also states that during the latter part of September, 

 1900, bollworm moths formed about 16 per cent of the total number 

 of moths attracted to the electric street lights at Washington, D. C. 



We have had experiences similar to the one noted by Professor 

 Morgan. During early September it was observed that the corn 

 plants for a distance of 50 feet surrounding the lantern traps were well 

 supplied with hiding moths the day after the traps had been in opera- 

 tion, although hardly any moths had been caught in the trap itself. 



ATTRACTION BY POISONED SWEETS. 



All attempts to trap the bollworm moths in this way have 3aelded 

 absolutely negative results. During the latter part of the summer 

 quite a number of experiments were tried with different combinations 

 in varying proportions of New Orleans molasses, sorghum, vinegar, 

 and beer; some of them poisoned by potassium cyanide or cobalt, and 

 others not. The solutions were placed in flat pans elevated on pedes- 

 tals from li to 4i feet high (see PL XXY, fig. 2). None of them 

 attracted more than -an occasional straj^ moth, although they were 

 placed in fields of corn and cowpeas where the moths Avere extremely 

 abundant. 



At other times during August and September a number of water- 

 melons were cut open in the fields and left to ferment and deca3\ At 

 no time did these attract any bollworm moths, although the cotton 

 moth Alctbaina (Aletia) argillacea was observed to feed on them to a 

 slight extent. 



Experiments were also tried by spraying the cowpea vines with a 

 mixture of sorghum, vinegar, and beer poisoned with cobalt. This 



a Bui. La. Expt. Sta., 2 ser., 48, p. 155. 



&BuL No. 30, n. s., Div. Ent, U. S. Dept. Agric, p. 86. 



