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THE COTTON MOTH IN CANADA. 



Rev. C. J. S. Bethune, of Port Hope, read the following paper : — 



It may seem at first sight somewhat out of place to bring before the Entomological 

 Society of Ontario an insect whose name and food-plant are so essentially Southern as 

 the Cotton Moth — A letia xylina, Say ; A argillacea, Hubn. It is, however, by no means 

 an uncommon insect in this Province and other northern parts of America, and has this 

 year occurred in large numbers at Port Hope. On the 7th and 8th of October I saw in 

 the day-time many specimens of the moth in my garden, darting, when disturbed, from 

 one place of concealment to another — generally the shelter of a fallen leaf. On Sunday, 

 the 9th, a warm, damp evening, they were very abundant, being especially attracted by 

 light ; and the next day I gathered up over 40 specimens underneath an electric street 

 lamp, not far from my house, where they had been emptied out of the globe by the 

 lamp-cleaner. The night before, I had noticed hundreds of moths flying about this lamp, 

 pursued by the usual attendant bats, and waited for below by the expectant toads. 

 Most of these must have been Cotton Moths, as I found only one specimen of any other 

 insect among the more than two score that I gathered up the next day. At the same 

 time, viz., on Oct. 8, 9, and 10, the shore of Lake Ontario, about a mile to the south of 

 where I live, and a little east of Port Hope harbour — was covered with the same moths, 

 evidently washed up by the waves. Some were alive, some nearly drowned, but the 

 great majority dead. 



The question that I wish to bring before the Society is, Where did all these Cotton 

 Moths come from 1 Have they flown up from the South on the wings of the wind, or 

 are they natives of our own country 1 Were this the only instance of their appearance 

 here, I should answer at once that they must have come to us from the cotton fields of 

 the Southern States, where they are always excessively numerous and destructive. But 

 many of my friends, as well as myself, have repeatedly found this moth in abundance in 

 Canada. As long ago as 1865 I observed it in great numbers late in September on 

 fallen fruit, and nearly every year since it has been more or less common in the autumn. 

 It has been found here in Ottawa, in Quebec, in various parts of Ontario, high up in the 

 Adirondack mountains in the State of New York, at Racine in Wisconsin, etc., always 

 in the autumn, late in September or in the beginning of October. 



Professor Riley, Chief of the Entomological Commission of the United States, and 

 the highest authority on the subject in North America, is strongly of opinion that the 

 moth migrates to these northern regions from the cotton States in the South. He con- 

 siders that the insect possesses ample powers of flight for traversing such a distance, 

 and believes that though it may breed for a season or two in Canada and the Northern 

 States, it does not become a permanent inhabitant, but is really a purely Southern species. 

 On the other hand, many northern Entomologists have agreed with me in thinking that 

 the moth must live in the north as well as in the south, and must therefore feed 

 upon some other plant besides the cotton — some indigenous member of the mallow family 

 (Malvacece). Our reasons for this opinion are (1) That the moth is so common over the 

 whole of the north, from Maine to Wisconsin ; (2) That the specimens we find are per- 

 fectly fresh, with their wings entire, and the scales unrubbed — without, in fact, any 

 indication that would lead one to suppose that they had just arrived from a flight of a 

 thousand miles ; (3) That a specimen was taken by Dr. Hoy, in Wisconsin, with the fore 

 and hind wings on one side in a deformed and crippled state, evidently showing that it 

 had recently emerged from the chrysalis, and that it could not have flown any distance ; 

 (4) That a female was captured also by Dr. Hoy near his residence at Racine, about the 

 middle of June. 



The fact that I mentioned at the outset that vast numbers of the moth were this 

 year washed up on the shore of Lake Ontario, seems at first sight to tell against our 

 view and to strengthen that of Prof. Riley. But after all, we have no evidence to show 

 from which direction these motbs came, whether they were flying across the lake from 

 the south and fell into the water when near the northern shore, for they could not have 

 been floating for any great distance, or whether they were blown at night off the land 



2 (EN.) 



