NATURE NOTES FROM ACADIA

A SOUTHERN VISITOR COMES TO ACADIA

Dr. A. E. Brower, Entomologist
Maine Forest Service

Most visitors come to Acadia by rail, water, or automobile, though some come by hydroplane. The latter, who travel by air, do not constitute a unique group either in method or ease of travel. For more than one hundred years, ever since cotton became a great staple crop, the trim brown Cotton-worm Moth has been making aerial flights to Acadia.

The Cotton-worm Moth lays her eggs only upon the cotton plant, and the green caterpillars of the Cotton Worm feed upon the cotton leaves. Several broods mature during the summer. This rapid multiplication increases their numbers enormously and may result in complete defoliation of the cotton. Before the coming of the Mexican Cotton-boll Weavil it was the most important cotton pest. The Cotton Worm is not able to endure winter temperatures in any of its stages and apparently needs to have a continuous supply of green cotton leaves on which to breed. In the fall when the cotton crop matures millions of the moths flyaway in all directions.

The Cotton-worm Moths which come to Acadia are a part of the enormous numbers which fly out from the cotton belt most years. This year they arrived early in October, aided in their flight by two or three days of southerly winds. At night they flew about the street lights in numbers, and many clung to the lamp globes, or store fronts, or rested in the gutters the next day, where observant people noticed them. The majority fold their wings roof-like over their backs and hide away in the grassy fields. They are unusual among moths in having barbed tongues with which they can abrade overripe fruits in order to suck the juices. They sometimes greatly damage crops of late peaches, cantaloupes, and other crops.

The marvel of their appearance so far from the cotton belt is heightened by their perfect condition. They arrive in Acadia apparently as perfect as the day they crawled from their pupal shell in the South. They seem to travel by means of some magic carpet. Sleek, glossy brown moths from the south, they visit Acadia at the same time when the Monarch Butterfly stops on its southward journey. The royal Monarch Butterfly is on its way to winter in the Gulf States. The Cotton-worm Moth has flown into a region where winter is fast coming on (where it must perish) - no one knows why.