[66] REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
sion will at once see its imperfections and inaccuracies. It is a hotly-disputed point 
as to what becomes of the worm during the "six or eight years" when it does not ap- 
pear, and no one in my circuit of acquaintance gives me anything better than a super- 
stition for a solution of the problem. Onr climate never giving us frost, scarcely 
affects the constant germinal qualities of plants or the enemies thereof; and it has 
been asserted to me that at one place or another the Cotton Worm can always be 
found. However, the difficulty I have experienced in obtaining the specimens sent, 
induces me to doubt the correctness of that assertion. 
4. "Has this worm always been in the country, or is it believed to be an importa- 
tion?" 
Answer. It has been here as long as cotton has been cultivated by the Mexicans. 
5. "How long has cotton been grown in Mexico, and does it grow wild?" 
Answer. We have historical accounts that cotton was grown and utilized since the 
twelfth century, but have no data that it was or was not naturally indigenous. But 
if said history be reliable it is fair to presume that it was indigenous, because there 
is no knowledge of commercial relations with foreign countries at that period. At 
present, however, there is no evidence of its being indigenous any more than the banana 
plant or other produce known to be of foreign origin. 
6. " What is the prevailing direction of the wind during the months of March, April, 
June, and July?" 
Answer. Easterly and southeasterly. 
7. "Transmit, if possible, in alcohol, specimens of the worm most destructive to 
the plant." 
Answer. The specimens I send I transmit in the same condition as received. I was 
promised the grasshopper and the ant, but tbe specimens have not been sent to me, 
and I have been so far behind time with my report that I do not deem it right for me 
to wait longer for them. They devour the cotton plant in common with every other 
green substance and are not a specific enemy of it. So, too, of the ground mole. 
Your obedient servant, 
S. T. TROWBRIDGE, 
Consul. 
Hon. William Hunter, • ^ 
Second Assistant Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. 
[Enclosure— translated.] 
Vera Cruz, March 2, 1680. 
Dear Sir: I send you a bottle containing various kinds of worms that destroy tbe 
cotton and plant. They are all I have been able to procure. This is now the part of 
the year in which the worms usually appear, and have been gathered near San An- 
dres Tuxtla, on the southern coast from here. 
I think some of the samples I send you do not attack the plant, but live on it with- 
out harming it. The large thick ones of the tobacco color with black half moons are 
of that species. The narrow green ones having two black lines on the body are, in 
my opinion, the only ones that attack the cotton plant. You will see other samples 
of the caterpillar in the state of chrysalis, and other Lepidoptera. 64 On the coast they 
are called palomas or salomilla (chrysalis or aurelia). Said paloma is ash color, and 
is nocturnal in its habits; is, in reality, a boinbyx, which produces a multitude of 
microscopic eggs on the plant, which eggs create, in short, the worm, also microscopic, 
and which commences immediately to devour the plant, and so continues until it gets 
to the state of enrollment to pass the last metamorphosis. 
This worm is in my opinion the Anomis xylina, or Noctua gossypii ; but I may be mis- 
taken. 
I have not been able to obtain the data sufficiently clear to say whether they w r ere 
imported into this country, but I am assured that they do not make their appearance 
every year at the same place; or, better said, they only come one or two years in suc- 
ceasion ; then disappear for six or eight years. They are not to be found in all the 
country at one time. Their reproduction is usually ascribed to our southern coast. 
1 understand their invasion can be victoriously combatted by sprinkling dry chlo- 
ride of lime over the ground and plants, or an aqueous solution of the same, and I 
have recommended this remedy to those living on the coast for a trial. 
I hope these data may be of utility, and I improve this occasion to place myself 
anew at your orders, repeating myself, 
Yours from my heart, 
R. DB ZAYAS ENRIQUEZ, 
Consul TltOWBRIDQE. 
