REPORT OP THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 279 



than Aletia argillacea. Many moths have been sent to this department 

 by persons supposing them to be the cotton-moth ; but in every instance, 

 ■with one possible exception, they proved to belong to other species. 



During the winter of 1878-'79 the following named local observers for 

 this department were on the lookout for liviug pui)ae or adults of A, 

 argillacea : Professor Willet, at Macon, Ga. ; Professor Smith, at Tusca- 

 loosa, Ala. ; Dr. Anderson, at Kirk wood, Miss., and Judge Jones, at Vir- 

 ginia Point, Tex. Not one of these gentlemen was successful. Profes- 

 sor Smith, in particular, made great exertions to obtain specimens of the 

 adult. He had sweetened mixtures for attracting moths exposed during 

 the entire winter ; but although he constantly obtained other moths, as 

 already stated, not a single Aletia was found. It is important to note 

 that Professor Smith's observations were made at a point which may be 

 farther north than the cotton-moth can hibernate. But in the latter part 

 of December Professor Willet made a trip to Southern Georgia, where 

 a careful search was rewarded only by a few dead pupae and many empty 

 pupa-skins ; the latter were found in dead wood and under bark of pine 

 trees ; many were also taken from ragweed on edge of a cotton field. 



In addition to the efforts of the local observers, Mr. Schwarz, who has 

 had a wide and very successful experience as a field entomologist, made 

 an extended tour through the cotton belt in order to ascertain what he 

 could respecting the winter quarters of this insect. ]\Ir. Schwarz was 

 no more successful in this particular than were his colaborers. A de- 

 tailed account of his trip is given in the special report. 



In conwsidering the results of Mr. Schwarz's observations, it should be 

 remembered that during the greater part of the time vrhile he was in the 

 field the weather was unusually cold, so that hibernating insects would 

 not be likely to be out from their places of concealment ; and that, as 

 Mr. Schwarz has well said, the failure to find the hiding place of the 

 cotton-moth is not proof that the species does not hibernate, for he also 

 failed to find in their winter quarters other insects which are very com- 

 mon, and respecting the hibernation of which there is no doubt. 



Although we firmly believe (both from the a posteriori reasons, which 

 were given at length in the special report, and from positive evidence to 

 be soon brought forward) that the cotton-moth hibernates in some por- 

 tions of the cotton belt of the United States, we have given these nega- 

 tive results at length, not merely for their purely scientific interest, but 

 as furnishing valuable data to be used in making plans for the destruc- 

 tion of this pest. For they show conclusively the impracticability of 

 attempting to destroy the insect in its winter quarters. 



The undoubted positive evidence of the hibernation of this insect con- 

 sists of a very limited number of observations ; for although we believe 

 that at least few of the many planters who think they have observed 

 the cotton-moth in midv>'inter and early spring are right, still the fact 

 that in every instance but one,* when specimens of the moths observed 

 have been sent to entomologists, it has been found that some other species 

 has been mistaken for Aletia argillacea, prevents our accepting testimony 

 of this kind. 



But we cannot doubt the statements of so accurate an observer as 

 Mr. Thomas Affleck, who says, in his Southern Eural Almanac, 1851, 

 pp. 49, 50 : 



On the 22d of December last, 1849, I saw great numbers of tie cotton-moth during 

 the dusk of the evening flitting about the fence-corners, dead trees which still retained 



* Prof. C. V. Riley Las received two female cotton-moths from James F. Bailey, of 

 Marion, Ala. These niotha were tahen on the night of the 12th of February, 1£80. 

 They were taken from a mock-orange tree {Cerasna carolinenaia) then iu bloom.— 

 lAmerican Entomologist, March, 1830. 



