23 
vation it was found that on pleasant sunshiny afternoons the moths 
flew about quite plentifully, feeding freely during their flight. Often 
while standing in a patch of cowpeas, from about 3 p. m., have I ob- 
served the moths, without any previous disturbance, rise here and 
there, fly about the pea blossoms or the glands at the base of the young 
pods, sip their exudations for a few minutes at a time, and then fly away 
a short distance, alight to rest and hide. In the early part of the 
afternoon the length of their visits to the pea blossoms are short and 
the time of their hiding longer than later. About 5 to G p. m., when 
the sun is yet quite high, the moths begin to fly for a longer time and 
their hidings are of shorter duration. 
My own experience with the moth has been that it feeds freely from 
about 4 p.m. until suudowu, when the females begin depositing their 
eggs, feeding being apparently a minor matter at this time. The moths 
thus seen flying about in the afternoon are not confined to one sex, 
though the males predominate during the earlier period until an hour 
or so before sundown, when both sexes appear presumably in about 
equal numbers. The favorite food of the moths at daytime are the 
blossoms and other secreting glands of the cowpeas ; they also feed freely 
on clover and Selenium tenuifolium. During the day the moth is seldom 
met with in the cotton fields either as feeding or by being flushed. It 
therefore appears that during the day the moth prefers to hide and 
feed upon plants some distance away from the cotton fields. During 
twilight ami night the moths are found abundantly in corn and cotton 
fields, and feed almost entirely upon the exudations of the various 
glands found on the cotton plant. 
But not only are the feeding habits of the moth partly diurnal but 
also those of the deposition of eggs. Though on several occasions a 
moth was seen depositing eggs on corn, and once on cowpeas in mid- 
afternoon, the habit is not one of frequent occurrence. 
These diurnal habits of feeding and occasional deposition are of great 
importance in the consideration of the utility of lights as traps for 
catching the moths at night, and will be taken up more fully in that 
connection. 
The number of eggs which a female may be capable of depositing 
is difficult of absolute determination, but has been shown to be much 
greater than was supposed. A female which had issued in confinement 
was placed in a breeding cage with a male which had issued the suc- 
ceeding day. Five days after deposition of eggs began, and continued 
for 7 days. During this time C>87 eggs were laid. Unfortunately, 
the female which was thus under observation after having died became 
mixed with other dead specimens on the table and hence no dissections 
were made with a view of determining whether any well developed 
eggs remained in the abdomen or whether the number of potential ova 
was great. A female captured August 5, and confined in a box de- 
posited 627 eggs in one night. Another, captured August 8, and 
