123 



pnpa into the face of the frost. Ou warm winter days the moths may 

 be disturbed in shelter. Since cotton is plan ted after the sj^ring vege- 

 tation has appeared, and no worm troubles the early plants, it is 

 evident that Anomis xylina does not exist at that time in any 

 stage. For if it existed as a moth, it would perish before the plant 

 was up upon which to deposit; if as an egg, this would hatch 

 equally before the food was ready ; if as a chrysalis, it could not lie ex- 

 ceptionally dormant while kindred life was active, unless in all these 

 cases it suited itself to the altered economy of its food plant. 

 I have never found it in any stage in the Cotton belt in the early 

 spring. The rapid numerical increase of individuals in the native 

 broods may be owing to the absence of parasitic checks which have 

 been escaped in migrating, and left behind in more Southern coun- 

 tries. On the other hand, Heliothis armigera is a resident of the 

 United States. While a comparison of American specimens 

 (umbi'osus) with European individuals {annigera) affords me no ap- 

 parently valid distinguishing characters, I yet remark that the 

 larvae have not been compared. I am not yet prepared to believe 

 that the species has been introduced from Europe, feeding, as it 

 does here, on some peculiarly American genera of plants. Yet, ac- 

 cording to Guen^e, its habitat is very extended, since it has been 

 taken in Australia, where, however, it may have been introduced 

 since the colonization and from America. It occurs apparently 

 rarely in Europe, whereas it is here common. Has it reached 

 Europe by a westward route from California ? We shall probably 

 soon write after its habitat — the world. 



HELIOCHILUS, Grote (1865). 



Heliocliilus paradoxus, Grote. 



The aberrant neurntion distinguishes this genus, originally de- 

 scribed from Colorado Territory. I have taken the species in Cen- 

 tral Alabama, apparently only diflFering from my types by its smaller 

 size. I learn that the genus has been since discovered in Northern 

 Ilindostan. 



