10 REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
The habits of this moth can only be studied at night, as, like almost 
all the rest of its family, it is nocturnal. During the day it simply starts 
up when disturbed, and darts by swift and low flight to some other shel- 
tered spot a few yards, or perhaps rods, away. After sunset, however, 
it may be seen leisurely hovering about, either bent on the perpetua.- 
tiou of its kiud or feeding upon whatever sweets it can get, whether 
from the cotton or from other sources. It is very strong and swift of 
wing, and capable, when the necessity arises, of flying long distances. 
In alighting upon the plant it generally turns its head downward, and, 
when it rests, the wings are but shallowly roofed, the front ones closed 
along the back and fully hiding the hind ones. In this respect it may 
always be distinguished from the parent of the Boll Worm, which rests 
with the front wings partly open and not entirely covering the hind 
ones. 
The female begins to lay her eggs in from two to four days after issu- 
ing from the chrysalis, the time varying with the different generations 
and according to temperature. 
In experiments which we have made with moths confined in vivaria, 
eggs have sometimes been laid thirty-six hours after issuing, and the 
moths have continued laying for twenty-one nights, the number laid 
each night ranging from 4 to 45. 
Examination of the ovaries of females at different seasons shows a 
much greater prolificacy than belongs to most moths, as the number of 
well-developed ova may reach 500, and of potential ova half as many 
more. In confinement it is difficult to obtain from one female more than 
300 eggs, but that fully double this number are produced in the field 
during the height of the season there can be little doubt, while the aver- 
age number may be estimated at about 400. 
The natural food of the moth, as we first indicated in the Ml of 1878,* 
is the sweet exudation from the glands upon the mid-rib of the leaf and 
at the base of each lobe of the involucre of the cotton plant. 9 Never- 
theless it is attracted to all kinds of sweets, and in most parts of the 
South it finds a bountiful supply in the exudation from the spikes of 
Paspalum Icevc, a tolerably common grass, but particularly in that copi- 
ously secreted by glands at the apex of the peduncle just above the pods 
of the Cow-pea (Dolichos). In the spring of the year, as Judge Bailey, 
of Marion, Ala., has observed, it may often be seen in the evening feed- 
ing in numbers, first from the blossoms of the Chicasaw plum, and sub- 
sequently from those of the peach, Chinese quince, mock orange (Cera- 
sus carolinemis), the early apples, and blackthorn. Later in the sea- 
son, when the glands above mentioned begin to exude and the tree 
blossoms are no more, the moths do not seem to be attracted by other 
nectar-storing flowers, since observations in different Southern States by 
ourself and assistants have resulted in finding but one species of verbena 
( Verbena aubletia L.) frequented, even where both moths and all sorts of 
* See Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution September 20, and Scientific American November 15, 1878. 
