The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-09-04
TIE COTTON WORM.
Prof. A. R. GrOte's Paper ON the Plague
of the Southern Planter.
N Y Trihuna Rennrf

| N. 7. Tribune Report.
John Hubner was the first to name
the cotton worm scientifically. He de-
scribed the cotton worm moth under
the name GLetiG GrgSLl0ce0, and figured
It in two positions. This name is fixed
by priority of description. The differ
emit stages of the aLetSa as found
| throughout the cotton belt of the SOUTH
ern states have been faithfully portrayed
by Prof. Townsend Glover, of the agri-
cultural department at Washington ::
the work is as yet unpublished, and
would be OF great value, as it also de-
scribes the habits and the insect enc
mics of the cotton worm. The publica-
| ton of this work should be taken in
hand by the state legislatures in the
| cotton belt.
Prof. O. N. Riley, of Missouri, has
noticed the GLetiG and furnished draw
| ing in the second report on the insects
| of Missouri of the moth, representing
! its head dewnwards as in a state of rest.
In the sixth report he again discusses
the insect, and the moth is represented
in normal position. He claims that
the cotton worm hybernates as moth.
The present paper will undertake to
show that such view is erroneous, and
will give some particulars respecting
| the habits of the insect. Prof. Grote
has observed the cotton worm during
| five seasons in central Alabama, and on
many different plantations. It belongs
| to the 2gOctaEOe, a family of nocturnal
moths. The genus is one of a number
of intertropical or southern forms re-
lated to the more northern genus plIS50,
and has on our own soil the genus 0raO-
mis- for its more immediate ally. The
worm is "half Topper" The chlysalis
| is held within an exceedingly loose web
on the plant, and is visible through the
mesh. The egg, the worm, the chrysalis,
and the moth have been fully described
elsewhere. It is designed here to trace
the consecutive history of the insect.
Prof. Grote has observed the worm in
Marengo and Green counties, on the
Tombigbee and Black Warrior rivers.
There cotton is sown in March and
] April, begins to bloom in June and Ju-
| ly, and perishes in November The ear
lest period at which Prof. Grote no
ticed the young worm was the last week
in June, its first appearance varying in
the same locality to the middle of July.
| The multiplication of the first brood
causes the greatest loss to the planter.
| The appearance of the worm is always
heralded by the advent of the perfect
moth, the latter coming to light in
houses at least week before the worm
appears in the fields. After making OBJ
servation-that the worm is the progeny
| of moths appearing for the first time in
June and July-Prof. Grote noted the
extreme irregularity of the first brood,
which skips some and visits other plan
tations over the country. But this ir-
regularity if fully made up by later
broods and subsequent increase. The
next feature observed was that the worm
is always heard of first to the southwark
of any given locality. It comes as an
army from the south, the broods arriv-
ing consecutively as long as the season
| lasts. The latest broods, when the
worms were numerous, ate everything
that was at all soft about the cotton
plant-the flowers, the persistent calyx,
the very young boil, the terminal shoots,
| then changed into myriad chrysalides,
clinging to the leafess stems in the face
| of frost, the latter chrysalides and re-
| tarded worms perishing. This south
ern army was killed by the advancing
winter and the decrease of their food
| plant. Prof. Grote asks if the few spe-
|
| days in the winter were cases of hyber-
nation or merely accidental survival.
Hubner describes the moth as origi-
nally from Bahia, Brazil. Its destluc-
! ton OF perennial cotton in the West In
dieJ, Mexico and Brazil is established.
| From ascientific point the insect is of a
southern type of its family. Prof. Grots
believes that the insect dies ont with its
| food at the end of each year in the
southern states, and that its next ap-
pearance is due in every instance to a
fresh immigration from more southern
regions. For many years after cotton
was cultivated in the south the insect
| did not make its appearance. It's earIi-
est date in Central Alabama was not
much preceding the war. It does not
appear every year, nor does it at the
same time of the year in any locality.
The moth is capable of extended flights;
| Prof. Packard has seen it in the eastern
states, Prof. Grote and DIR. L. F. Har-
vey in Buffalo; Prof. Riley says it has
been taken in Chicago. It probably
follows the coast-line and the water
courses employing in the gulf of Mexico
the watershed of the Mississippi ex-
tending to within fifty miles of Buffalo.
There is evidence of most extended
flights on the part of other nocturnal
insects. Spreading thus rapidly from
the south, it escapes its natural par
asites.
If the hybernating theory is adopted,
a period of several months in the histo-
ry of the insect can not be accounted
! for. The worm has never been seen on
anything brit the cotton plant, and
perishes by thousands rather than eat
anything else, remaining so long as the
plant furnishes food, and turning to a
chrysalis on the leaves or stems at last.
The wandering is accidental, as the
worm is not gregarious like the tent
| caterpillars. There is no proportion
bet4 cen the few that survive in warm
winters and the swarms of the first APP
pearance. The permanent residence of
the ALetiG is outside Of our cotton belt,
Prof. Grote concludes that it is not in
digenous with us, but an annual f.; not
denizen, but visitant, unable to con-
tend with the variations of our climate;
and he believes that the process of arti-
fciai determination may be simplifed
by limiting the period of successful
attack and doing away with certain pro-
posed remedies. The agent of destruc-
ton must be directed against the first
DEOOu III 0dCu db1O
action on the part of the planters, where
the remedy is to be applied, will be
necessary.
Prof. Riley began the discussion of
the paper on the cotton worm by saying
that he had recently received number
of letters from men who had investi-
gated this subject, asking for definite
information as to the cotton worm. He
thought Prof. Grote's paper would in a
II easure answer those inquiries satisfac-
torily, and he would simply make one
correction-where the essayist implies,
said he, that have come to other con-
illusions, and states that the moth hi
bernates simply from analogy. I have
done so more from recorded facts than
anything else. The question was
whether it hibernated as a chrysalis or
as a moth. The conclusions of Mr..
Grote are that the moth hibernates
and dies necessarily. I think Mr..
Grote's facts show that it does. Now
the question is over how wide an area
does this moth perish every winter.
Can it be possible that in the Gulf
States the moth can not survive the
mild winters? Must every year an in
sect be brought necessarily from. the