The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1881-11-23
The Cotton. Moth.
Editor Florida Agriculturist.l

tention of your readers to the Cotton
Moth, and asked for aid in nrosecu-
ting a series of experiments that |
began some years ago, the import-
ance of which can hardly be estima-
ted. to a class OF small farmers espe.
cially, who depend year after year
upon their little cotton crop, only to
have too often their hopes bllghted
and their credit ruined by the boil
worm, the cotton stainer and the cot
ton worm. thought that by extern
sive cooperation, enough could be
learned of the habits of the cotton
moth to enable practical entomolo>
gists to devise means TO check the
ravaoes Of this insect. Not an an
swer reached me in reply to my re-
quest though Prof Riley may have
been so honored.
Meanwhile / have been persistentA
ly studying night and day in the field,
and present you with some facts that
NAV be OF value, and deductions
therefrom.
The "catterpillar," par excellence,
is the third or fourth brood of larvae
of the Aletia, yellowish night flying
moth that seems to be indigenous to
Florida, and that starting from here,
spreads over the cotton belt each
year. The chrysalids OF the fifth and
sixth broods become moths that hide
most likely dormant in the wire grass,
fence corners and old fields, and in
February can be seen warm days
around the blows of the strawberry
and blackberry. Each female lays on
an average 400 eggs, and if nothing
hindered, the increase from the moth
till March would be eighty thousand
by May LIST, one million six hundred
thousand by July LIST, and by Aug.
18th the tremendous sum of three
hundred and twenty millions. Yet
by the combined efforts of birds,
wasps, ants, musquito-hawks and in>
sect parasites, it is likely that but one
worm survives out OF hundred, yet
this would make the increase of one
Aletia, by August, only three millions
two hundred thousand, and readily
account for the countless host that
often sweep field clean in few
days. Whens''these insects reach
their maximum, they often suddenly
disappear, and by the first of Nov.
not one can be found Why? Their
insect enemies overpower them. A
large red wasp kills hundreds each
day apparently TOR sport, as it bites
but fragment from each worm; then
the guinea wasp, the big sociable
black wasp, the hornet, the horses
guard and the musquito-hawk, the
wheel-bug, soldier bug, the praying
mantis and the asiius fly, all prey on
the worms. while there are some tinv
flies that lay eggs Oh the back Or in
the back OF the worm that ultimately
causes its death. When in the CO.
coon the black wasp bites holes in
exposed spots, and the Loggerhead
finds a fat cocoon a good lunch tor
him.
Ants have had much credit in
keeping down the Aletia, but l have
watched carefully, and have never
seen a grown worm attacked, unless
OF the ground. My impression is
that ants do eat the eggs, but am
not sure, only that where ants are
plenty the Aletia eggs are scarce, and
in low, wet lands, which ants avoid
eggs and worms abound.
The usual theory is that the fly
first selects the ranks growth to lay
eggs, but this year l visited all parts
of the cotton field, night alter night
and invariably found the moth anG
eggs as plenty in one place as anoth-
er; visiting the same spots next day
found the eggs had gone from the
HIGH lands. hence the worms womb