24 
kept in the same maimer, deposited 468 in one night. Another, cap- 
tured August 14, deposited 505 eggs the first night, was kept in a 
tin box without food during the next day and deposited 125 eggs more 
on the second night, making 630 in all. The first female spoken of 
above as having deposited her 687 eggs on seven successive nights did 
so as follows, begiuning with the first night and continuing in order: 
49, 5, 10, 436, 147, 22, 18 : averaging 98 per night. 
The life of the moth was probably shortened by confinement, and 
therefore the average number of eggs deposited each night is entirely too 
high for oviposition under normal conditions. The record, however, 
shows that a climax in egg deposition is reached after a certain period. 
(The possible importance of this fact is considered under the head of 
lights as traps for the moth.) The total number of eggs deposited by 
the four females above noted was 2,413, averaging 603 per moth. But 
the number of eggs deposited in one night by the moths captured and 
confined show that their period of greatest egg deposition had already 
been reached by them. Judging from the record of the moth whose 
deposition of eggs was observed from the first, it seems safe to suppose 
that probably each of the other moths had deposited about 50 eggs 
previous to being captured. This would raise the average to 653 eggs 
per female. But again, from dissections of the females thus observed in 
confinement it was found that a number of well developed eggs re- 
mained, and usually also a great number of potential ova. The aver- 
age of 653 eggs per female is therefore certainly not too great and proba- 
bly much too small. 
What the number of eggs deposited in one night in a free state of 
nature are can only be approximated. As has been stated the female 
deposits four, five, or more eggs in succession, then flies away, feeds 
or rests a time, afterwards repeating the process. The interval of 
nondeposition is necessarily variable, though as near as can be deter- 
mined about 5 to 15 minutes. How long deposition is continued dur- 
ing an evening is also not to be definitely stated, though it is noticeable 
that the moths begin to decrease greatly in numbers soon after 8 o'clock, 
thus approximately the time is about 2 hours. From these data it may 
be approximated that from about 30 to 60 eggs are normally deposited 
in a single night. For the nights during the period of greatest deposi- 
tion, the number deposited is probably much larger. 
Upon the number and distribution of the eggs upon the various parts 
of the host plants the following data are collated : By actual count the 
number of eggs found on five corn plants is as follows, in averages: per 
plant, 74 distributed as follows: tassel, 10; leaf sheaths, 10; leaves, 
14; husks of ears, 15 ; silks, 25. The above count was made in a small 
patch of corn surrounded by cotton fields with no other corn near, 
wherefore the number of eggs per plant was perhaps greater than on 
plants in larger fields of corn. (This point will be considered more fully 
under corn as a protection to cotton, which see.) Of five cotton plants 
