MIGRATIONS OF THE MOTHS HIBERNATION. 15 



erations is, of course, fewer, and will vary according to tlie date of the 

 incoming of moths from the further south, and according to other cir- 

 cumstances. The generations are not only fewer, therefore, but more 

 easily separated and defined. 



MIGRATIONS. 



Many persons, noting the short and clumsy though rapid and darting 

 flight of the moth, when disturbed during the day-time, get the idea that 

 it is incapable of extended flight. But it has great power of wing, and 

 its migrating habits are abundantly attested. It has been observed in 

 numbers, far out at sea, and captured in autumn off the coast of New 

 England, around Chicago and around Buffalo — the species being identi- 

 fied by competent entomologists like Packard, Burgess, Grote, and 

 Westcott. We have known it to do considerable injury during Septem- 

 ber to peaches in Kansas, and to ruin acres of cantelopes during the 

 same month as far north as Eacine, Wis. That it is aided in these dis- 

 tant flights by favoring winds there can be no doubt, but that it does 

 not depend on them for dispersion is equally certain. A factor to be 

 considered, also, in connection with these northern appearances, is the 

 probable existence of one or more northern food-plants.^* 



Dr. D. L. Phares records the destruction, by the worms, of cotton the 

 first year planted, eighty miles from any point where cotton had been 

 grown before J while Mr. H. P. Bee (see letter in Appendix) shows that 

 they appeared in Mexico on cotton planted two hundred miles from any 

 other fields. Numerous similar cases might be mentioned. 



The migrating habit is common to many insects and other animals, 

 but is almost always associated with excessive multiplication. Such 

 is likewise the case with Aletia, as the observations of past years 

 have clearly shown. So long^ as the worms are not numerous enough 

 to materially riddle the cotton, the moths produced from them busy 

 themselves with ovipositing in the neighborhood where they were born, 

 spreading only comparatively short distances on all sides ; but when- 

 ever the cotton is well "ragged," then the moths acquire the migrating 

 habit and appear in numbers everywhere — ^in town and village, and at 

 lights far away from cotton-fields. The time of year when this migrating 

 habit is acquired varies, but it is rarely till after the third genera- 

 tion of worms, or the latter part of June and fore part of July in South 

 Texas ; while it is most pronounced during the autumn months. At 

 such times the moths may be noticed, during cloudy days, starting off 

 by rapid flight and ascending high in the air till lost to sight ; and the 

 contrast between this movement and the darting and hiding of the 

 normal day-flight is quite striking to any one who has witnessed it. 



HIBERNATION. 



No question connected with the Cotton Worm has given rise to more 

 speculation than that of the hibernation of the insect, and this fact at 

 once finds its explanation in the difficulty that surrounds the subject. 



