L92] 



REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



served influence of soil and weather on the development of the worm : but in so far 

 as any such theory implies the hibernation of the eggy or the spontaneous generation 

 of the insect, or in so far as it departs from the reasoning on pages 81-83 of this Re- 

 port, we believe it to be fallacious. ] 



[The following condensed summary of the habits of the worm is from that excel- 

 lent observer, Dr. D. L. Phares, of Woodville, Miss. :] 



The caterpillar generally makes its first appearance at or about the same spot in a 

 field year after year, partially or wholly denuding a few square rods or an acre or two. 

 That is the first appearance generally noticed by planters. Close observers find a few 

 earlier, and only a few leaves nibbled on only a stalk or two of cotton. In due time 

 the moths from this first, or rather second, brood deposit their eggs in all parts of the 

 field when the foliage is in right condition for feeding the young. In a few days more 

 all parts of the field are stripped simultaneously, that is, so far as eaten at all. This 

 when the destruction is early. When broods are smaller, the successive generations 

 appear for three, five, and even seven months. 



'• They are not Army Worms. They usually hatch and pass through all transforma- 

 tions on the same plant on which the egg is deposited. If accidentally thrown oft', 

 they return to the plant when practicable. Sometimes violent storms of wind and 

 rain sweep nearly all oft" and w^ash them up in vast heaps against fences, &c., where 

 they putrefy. Dry, hot sunshine seems to destroy them in all stages ; and sometimes, 

 under such conditions, they abandon the partially denuded plants and move in im- 

 mense masses from the field ; not so often, it seems to me, for other food, as to escape 

 the intense heat. Under such conditions one rarely ever ascends another cotton plant. 

 Their march is to death. If a road be in the way and dusty, and still worse sandy or 

 gravelly, few succeed in passing the barrier. The exposed hot ground kills them', 

 and sometimes we have seen them in the road-side ditches several inches deep, in- 

 fecting the air with putrefactive stench. 



''Another point : If the moth deposits no eggs in any part of a field, no caterpillars 

 will attack that part. She knows evidently where the young can subsist and where 

 not, and she deposits her eggs accordingly. If the plant is in condition to feed the 

 moth, I suppose it is in condition to hatch and feed the young. Little or no dift'er- 

 ence is perceptible by the common planter in the condition of the plant on two sides 

 of a line that may divide an injured and uninjured field. A little distance from the 

 line the difference is not perceptible. The plant is not so tender. Its chemical and 

 mechanical condition both unfit it for the food of the caterpillar ; therefore the moth 

 deposits no eggs on it, nor will the caterpillars if placed on it eat it. This is specially 

 and annually noticed on rolling or undulating lands, and sometimes on lands to the 

 eye apparently level. This is my fortieth crop on the lands where I reside, and in no 

 year has my whole crop been eaten off. The crops are often destroyed in Madison 

 County and other points north as well as south of me before any dama^ e is done here 

 by the caterpillar. This depends on condition of plant.'' 



