344 



THE GYPSY MOTH. 



Habits or Flight. 



The g3^psy moth is not nocturnal, and, unless disturbed, 

 but few of the males fly before 9 a.m. The time of greatest 

 activity is between 10 a.m. and 3 or 4 p.m., after which time 

 they seldom fly voluntarily. As alread}^ stated, they fly 

 most vigorously on warm days, and in a zigzag course. 



The female moth has never been seen to fly in this coun- 

 try, except on one occasion, and that was after the laying 

 of the eggs. Mr. F. H. Mosher, one of our most reliable 

 observers, while making observations in a colony of the 

 gypsy moth in the forest at TToburn, Mass., July 18, 1895, 

 saw a female gypsy moth that had finished or nearly finished 

 laying her eggs, upon being disturbed by males, drop to the 

 ground and fly about twenty feet, striking the ground and 

 rising again at distances of about two feet. In Europe, C. 

 Wingelmuller, in the Wiener lUustrirte Garten-Zeitung," 

 Jan. 15, 1890, page 269, says that ''the female gypsy moth 

 does not shake olf her sluggishness even during the night, 

 the especial time of her activity' ; and a short, lazy flight 

 from one tree to another close by is the most that she accom- 

 plishes." This helplessness is only on account of her body 

 being stored with eggs, which prevents her from taking a 

 longer flight. I have tried, again and again, at various 

 times during the day, to oblige the females to fly, by throw- 

 ing them into the air and also by knocking them oflT from the 

 trees ; and in every case they only fluttered to the ground 

 without any attempt to move forward by using their wings. 

 On July 14, 1889, I was in the zoological gardens in Berlin, 

 and saw the g}^')sy moths in great abundance. They were 

 then in the imago stage, and occasionally females fluttered 

 down from the trees in precisely the same manner that they 

 do in this country when disturbed by the males. As our 

 employees have observed the habits of this insect at all hours 

 of the day and night, and have seen no real flight except in 

 the case above mentioned, and as the statement of Wingel- 

 muller seems a little indefinite, I am inclined to think that 

 the female gypsy moth never voluntarily flies, nor indeed 

 can she do so before laying her eggs, because of the enor- 

 mous weight she would have to sustain. It may further be 



