29 
In the month of September, 1874, I had my attention called to a 
small but very distinct army of these worms crossing the walk lead¬ 
ing to the University south of our town. They were making their 
way to a lot on the west, containing young rye which had been 
sown unusually early. They were then apparently fully grown, and 
did very little injury to the rye. The following Spring the same lot 
was overrun by Army-worms. I made a memorandum of these 
facts, but did not publish them, as I was not then devoting any 
special attention to Entomology. 
We may therefore consider as established, that the species is at 
least double-brooded in the latitude of St. Louis and. Southern Illi¬ 
nois, and that the experience of 1880 renders it highly probable 
that the same is true in reference to its life-history in the vicinity 
of New York City. 
Whether there is but one brood further north, or more than two 
broods further south, is still a matter of doubt. And whether it is 
usually or ever three-brooded in the latitude of St. Louis and 
Southern Illinois, is also a question yet unsettled. 
Prof. Biley, in his ninth report, expresses the belief that “in the 
more northern States, at least, or over the larger portion of the 
country in which it proves injurious, it is but single-brooded.’' But 
that at St. Louis it is at least two-brooded, and that probably there 
are occasionally three generations in a season. In his article in 
1880, already mentioned, he thinks there is still another generation 
in the latitude of St. Louis, and additional ones in the Southern 
States. 
As I interpret his language in his last article on the subject, he 
now believes it probable that there are occasionally as many as four 
generations in a season in the latitude of St. Louis, and more than 
four farther south. 
Dr. Packard (U. S. Geol. Surv. Territories, 1877), while accepting the 
theory that it is normally two-brooded and probably occasionally three- 
brooded in the latitude of St. Louis and Southern Illinois, asserts 
that it is single-brooded in the Northern States. 
Prof. Comstock thought, at the time of writing the Army-worm ar¬ 
ticle for his report (June 21, 1880), that there would be two gener¬ 
ations during the year in Long Island, and remarks that “farther 
south, during winters of unusual mildness, a succession of broods 
is kept up during the entire year.” 
It is evident, from what has been stated, that entomologists have 
not come to an agreement in reference to this question, except upon 
the fact that it is at least two-brooded in the middle belt or lati¬ 
tude of its distribution north and south; and in this respect, as we 
may truly say, after wandering ’round the circle, have at last come 
back to the point where I stood twenty years ago, and are so 
far correct. But, while I think it quite probable that there are 
more than two generations in the Southern States, I have strong 
doubts about this being true as a general rule in Southern Illinois, 
or at any point north of the Ohio river, I am also of the opinion 
it is double-brooded as far north as the northern limits of this 
State, and as Central New York. 
