356 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. IX, No. 10 
A small cottage of five rooms (fig. 4) on one floor was utilized in testing 
the behavior of the moths in relation to light and darkness. All of the 
rooms opened out on a narrow, central passageway (E), 15 feet long, 
which could be made the darkest part of the house by closing up the 
main entrance. Several hundred moths were liberated on different 
days in the rooms. A large percentage (nearly half) could always be 
found after a few hours in the dark passageway. At 6.30 p. m., if the 
front entrance was closed, these moths 
would leave the passageway and come 
to the screened windows of the rooms, 
seeking exit to the outdoors. Two 
hundred to three hundred moths, lib¬ 
erated one afternoon in a small dark¬ 
ened room ( B) at the end of the dark 
passageway at 6.30 p. m., flew through 
the length of this 15-foot passageway 
out into the open air; nor were they 
hindered in doing this when the porch 
outside was lighted by a strong light. 
It is noteworthy that not a single moth 
was attracted to the light on the porch, 
but that all flew right out through the light space to the cotton fields 
Fig. 4.—Plan of the house used for observations 
on the behavior of the moths of the pink boll- 
worm in relation to light. (Original.) 
beyond. 
It is apparent, therefore, that neither a darkened space nor a sheet 
of light is an effective barrier to the flight of these moths. 
LONGEVITY OF THE LARVA AND BEHAVIOR UNDER ARTIFICIAL 
CONDITIONS 
As already stated, the larval life of P. gossypiella is accomplished under 
normal summer conditions in from 20 to 30 days, but if the young larva 
is confined to dry and hard cotton seeds, either artificially or, as may 
happen, in prematurely ripening bolls in the field, it will live much longer. 
Half-grown larvae kept in dry cotton seeds in a cool place from June to 
September eventually reached maturity, pupated, and issued successfully 
as moths. The life of the hibernating larva is normally longer, from 3 to 
5 months; but these also may live for a much longer period under dry 
conditions unfavorable for the issue of the imago. Heavily infested, 
unginned seeds were baled under strong pressure into small trial bales (24 
by 12 by 18 inches) in September, 1915, and placed in dry. rearing boxes 
indoors in Honolulu. One of these bales was examined every month 
afterwards, and numbers of live healthy larvae were found on each exami¬ 
nation up to March, 1917. It was thus actually proved that the sus¬ 
pension of larval life may extend over 18 months; and there is no doubt, 
from observations of other seed-feeding lepidopterous larvae, that the 
