THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



are known to hibernate in this state. (8) 

 It is e.xtremely difficult to attain, in a room, 

 the proper conditions of moisture and 

 freshness that belong to a sylvan atmos- 

 phere, and I have never been able to keep 

 other hibernating Lepidoptera alive 

 through the whole winter in such artificial 

 situation, though I have tried with both 

 Danais archippus and Paphia glycerium. 

 For this reason it will always be next to 

 impossible to get absolute and inco7itro- 

 vertibk proof of the hibernation of Aletia 

 by watching the moths from fall till they 

 oviposit the following year, but it may be 

 truly said that if the hibernation of other 

 species rested on equally absolute proof, 

 there is not one among the Lepidoptera, 

 or other Orders for that matter, that could 

 be said to hibernate. One other argument 

 that has been made in favor of the theory 

 may, lastly, be mentioned. It is that during 

 the late war no cotton was grown for three 

 years in some sections of the South, and 

 that the first crop raised thereafter was 

 infested. Prof. Comstock took particular 

 pains to make inquiries on this head, and 

 found that some patches of cotton had 

 been grown every year in such sections. 



In favor of hibernation in the Southern 

 portion of the cotton belt may be urged 

 (i) the appearance of the moth on the 

 wing during mild winter weather, and its 

 being found torpid in sheltered situations, 

 as insisted on by so many ; (2) the first 

 appearance of the worms in small numbers, 

 as attested by recent observations ; (3) 

 their re-appearance each year in the same 

 spots, not on the sea coast nearest to the 

 tropical zone, where we should expect 

 them on the theory of annual incoming, 

 but at various points far inland ; (4) the 

 coming of the moths in large numbers and 

 as immigrants into the Northern portion 

 of the belt being always preceded by the 

 appearance of the worms and their gradual 

 increase at some other, generally moreSouth- 

 ern or Western point ; and (5) the decrease 

 of cotton culture in Central America and 

 the West Indies, as appears from market 

 statistics, and the utter absence of the worm 

 n the Bahamas since 1866, as ascertained 



by Mr. Schwarz while there last spring. 



The strongest fact against hibernation 

 is, perhaps, the period elapsing between 

 the disappearance of the moths in March 

 and the first appearance of the worms, or, 

 to put it in another form, the absence of 

 the worms on the young and tender cotton. 

 The period during which the species is 

 not to be seen is already reduced, by the 

 facts in this bulletin, to less than one month 

 instead of three, and this is much less than 

 the time which elapses between the issuing 

 from winter quarters of other Lepidoptera 

 that hibernate as imagines and the first ap- 

 pearance of their larvae ; numerous illustra- 

 tions of which fact might be cited. 



On the whole, therefore, the weight of 

 evidence is strongly against the theory of 

 annual extermination in the Southern part 

 of the belt, and the fact of the hibernation 

 of Aletia there may be said to rest on as 

 good evidence as that of many other 

 species in which it is admitted without 

 question. Yet Aletia is, beyond doubt, 

 killed out each winter in the Northern 

 portion of the cotton belt, and all the argu- 

 ments in favor of annual extinction and 

 incoming de- novo have force when re- 

 stricted to this section. Just where the 

 separating line lies between extinction and 

 survival is not easy to decide, and for the 

 present I can only refer to that given in 

 the Introduction (see p. 15) as the result 

 of the investigation so far as* it has gone. 



This conclusion that the moth does and 

 can hibernate in the United States does 

 not preclude its occasional incoming from 

 foreign, more tropical countries ; or the 

 possibility of its being brought by favoring 

 winds from such exterior regions, just as 

 originally must have been the case when the 

 species was first introduced. The facts in- 

 dicate, however, that this kind of immigra- 

 tion is less frequent at the present time than 

 it was in the beginning of the century. 



To sum up the evidence from present 

 knowledge : Aletia never hibernates in 

 either of the first three states of egg, larva, or 

 chrysalis ; and it survives the winter in the 

 moth or imago state only in the Southern 

 portion of the cotton belt. My own in- 



