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No caterpillar of any butterfly, except Thecla pceas so far as I am 
aware, feeds upon cotton, although several species of butterflies are 
found in numbers flying through the cotton fields, alighting ever and 
anon upon the cotton blossoms to feed upon their sweets. 
Three butterflies, Callidryas eubule Linn., Terias nicippe Cram., and 
Euptoieta claudia Oram., are so frequently seen in cotton fields through- 
out the whole cotton belt that it is but natural for the cotton grower to 
suspect them to be genuine cotton insects. They are mentioned here 
as of special interest on account of a remarkable theory in regard to 
one of them, originating and held by Mr. John W. Brown, the planter 
with whom I was staying, namely, that Gallidryas eubule, which he 
called the "vandal fly," produces the boll- worm (Heliothis armiger). 
Notwithstanding I explained to Mr. Brown the utter impossibility of 
such widely separated species originating 'from one another, the first 
belonging to the section Rhopalocera, or butterflies, and the second to 
the section Heterocera, or moths, he most strenuously held to his 
theory, and claimed to have proven it by a series of exx^eriments carried 
on for a period of three years. 
It is scarcely necessary to state that at no time did I believe such a 
remarkable theory. Mr. Brown, however, was so positive in his state- 
ments about rearing his " vandal-fly" that I, for a time, thought it quite 
probable the caterpillar might feed on cotton, and my experiments with 
it, therefore, were conducted more toward proving or disproving its 
food-habits. 
I shall enter into no details respecting my experiments. Suffice to 
say, several efforts were made to induce the butterflies to oviposit on 
cotton, but all proved unsuccessful, the " vandal-fly" again and again 
refusing to lay its eggs on cotton. I ascertained that its food-plant was 
Cassia and allied species; and, on procuring some wild coffee (Cassia 
occidentalis), had no difficulty in getting it to oviposit. I inclosed the 
butterfly in a gauze net with this food plant, and from the eggs thus 
obtained succeeded in hatching the young larvae. 
It is in the section Heterocera,. or moths, that we find the most serious 
pests of the cotton plant, but only three species cause the planter any 
serious apprehension, and when they appear he should at once resort 
to the best remedies known for their destruction, or he will run the 
risk of losing his crop. These are the larva? or caterpillars of three 
nocturnal moths, namely, the boll- worm (Heliothis armiger Hiibn.), the 
cotton-worm or cotton leaf- worm (Aletia argillaeea Hiibn.), and the cot- 
ton cut-worm [Prodenia lineatella Harvey). The habits and destructive- 
ness of the first two have been theisubject of such thorough investiga- 
tion by this Department and the U. S. Entomological Commission that 
very little remains to be discovered respecting them, and they, there- 
fore, need not be mentioned here. 
The cotton cut- worm (Prodenia lineatella Harvey) is not mentioned 
among cotton insects by either Comstock or Riley, although in reading 
