12 REPORT UPON COTTON INSECTS. 



6. Geometridae. Measuring- worm moths. 



7. PyraUdae. Snout-moths. 



8. Tortricidae. Leaf rollers. 



9. Tineidae. Leaf miners. 



10. Pteroplioridae. Plume moths. 



Family 5 the Noctuidae is characterized by having the body ro- 

 bust, the antennae almost constantly simple, the thorax stout and often 

 crested, the mouth parts well developed, the spiral tongue being greatly 

 elongated. The wings in repose are ordinarily deflexed at the sides of 

 the body, and the abdomen is of an elongate conical form. 



Mr. Grote in his "List of the Noctuidae of North America"* places 

 all North American Noctnids in the three tribes, Bombyeiae, NoCtuae, 

 and Noctuo-Phalcenidi, Noctuae containing the bulk of the family, Bom- 

 tyciae and Noctuo-Phalcenidi simply the forms osculating with the pre- 

 ceeding and succeeding families. To this tribe Noctuae belong many very 

 injurious insects in addition to the cotton- worm. All of the cut- worms, so 

 destructive to many crops, the boll- worm, the army-worm o the North, 

 the "grass-worm" and many others of lesser importance, the wheat- 

 head army- worm, the corn and potato stalk borers (Gortyna), and others. 

 T6 the genus Aletia of this tribe Noctuae, the cotton-worm moth be- 

 longs, and it is known by the specific name of argillacea. 



The history of the synonymy of Aletia is interesting. On January 

 1, 1827, Dr. C. W. Capers, who had been making a study of the cotton- 

 worm, sent specimens for identification to Thomas Say, then Professor 

 of Natural History in the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Say an- 

 swered : . 



I have carefully examined the contents of the box which accompanied your letter. 

 It contained several cotton-moths which are much injured, but as far as I am enabled 

 to judge by their remaining characters, they constitute a new species, of which I have 

 made the following description.! 



NOCTUA Fabr. 



N. XYLINA. Olivaceous, tinged with vinaceous ; superior wings with a black spot. 



Description. Head vinaceous, with a small whitish tuft before; antenna' palo 

 honey-yellow, of moderate length, covered with scales above and short hair beneath ; 

 labrum rounded, small ; mandibles conic, whitish, with a fascicle of sericeous fulvous 

 hair on the inner base; maxillae as long as the antennae, papillaceous towards tin tip : 

 palpi densely covered with short equal scales, which are intermixed rufous and white ; 

 second joint much longer than the first ; third joint very distinct, conic, linear ; thorax 

 vinaceous with more or less of olivaceous, particularly on the sides; superior wings 

 vinaceous, towards the posterior margin obsoletely olivaceous; a little above and 

 partly on the second bifurcation of the post costal nervure is an oblique sub-oval, 

 blackish spot, in which are paler scales, forming almost a double pupil ; posterior to 

 this spot is an obsolete, much-undulated, interrupted, dull rufous line, reaching the 

 anal margin near the middle and the costal margin at two-thirds the distance from 

 the humcrus; behind this line is a distinct one, and in some specimens a still less dis- 

 tinct one toward the base of the wing, accompanied by a small spot ; inferior wings 



"Bull. BuC Soc. Nat. Sci. 1875. 

 t Say's Entomology of N. A. Ed., Le Conte, I. 370. 

 I 



