726 THE COTTON WORM. 
cotton worm ever breeds in the North, and this, notwithstanding 
Professor Riley’s suggestions to the contrary, in the Sixth Report 
before mentioned. The worm never has been noticed on any 
other plant than the cotton, and in the south perishes by thou- 
sands rather than eat any other. The habit of wandering in 
masses when food fails is a proof of this, as while the worm is 
supplied with cotton leaf it never quits the plant, transforming to 
the chrysalis on the stalk which has furnished it nutriment. The 
wandering habit is not normal but accidental, and the worm is 
not * gregarious” like the “tent caterpillar.” Its “ hibernation” 
with us must also be regarded as accidental, or at least as barren 
of results. For when spring comes the Aletia argillacea has van- 
ished, and is not found with the hibernating species of Lepidoptera, 
renewedly active. And if it were found in February and March, 
it would find no cotton plants upon which to deposit its eggs- If 
oviposition ever takes place in these months in the cotton belt, the 
young cotton, free from worms, disproves its efficacy. 
It is possible that in the southern portions of Texas, Or the 
Floridian peninsula, the Aletia may sustain itself during the 
entire year; I have no means of information on this point. 
My observations are made on its occurrence over the central and 
. principal portions of the cottom belt and into which I believe it to 
be imported de novo every season that it there occurs and from 
more southern regions. a 
I conclude, therefore, that while the cotton plant is not. indige- 
nous to the Southern States (where it becomes an annual), the coe 
ton worm moth may be considered not a denizen, but a visitant, . 
brought by various causes to breed in a strange region, and that 4 
it naturally dies out with us in the cotton belt, unable to suit — 
itself as yet to the altered economy of its food plant and to co 
tend with the changes of our seasons. i : 
When this fact is comprehended, it will simplify the process r 
artificial extermination by limiting the period during which we oo 
successfully attack the cotton worm, and by doing away with 2 — 
certain class of proposed remedies. ata 
From the foregoing it willbe evident that 1. The artificial agen” 
employed to destroy the cotton worm must be employed ag m 
the first brood as it appears in any given locality during the m 
gression of the moth northward ; and 2. That, in order to be 
