NOTES OF MR. SCHWAEZ's JOURNEY. 103 



places and the difficulty, or rather; impossibility, of making a thorough investigation 

 in this respect. In my opinion the least difficult way of solving this vexed question 

 would be to place,an observer at some suitable point in the South, who should from 

 the very first warm day of the year, say the 1st of /February, go out every evening with 

 lanterns and try the experiment of sugaring trees. If this course were followed I 

 think he would be able to find Af argillacea. To find the moth in the winter time in 

 the cracks of the countless old live-oaks in the bottom-lands is a matter of mere 

 chance. 



At Bayou Sara, La., Mr. Schwarz made a thorough search for hiber- 

 nating moths under the bark of trees surrounding the field, and in 

 similar places, but without success. From a letter dated Yicksburg, 

 Miss., January 28, we extract the following : 



Since I wrote you my last letter I have continued my efforts to find hibernating 

 individuals of Aletia. Favored by the mild weather, I have hunted every day from 

 morning until evening with this sole object in view, and have certainly made a 

 thorough investigation of the country around Bayou Sara and -Francisville. I never 

 saw a country better suited for this purpose than the valleys and bluff's in West Fe- 

 liciana Parish; but my efforts were all in vain, and I failed completely to discover 

 any trace of the hibernation of the moth. However, my belief in the hibernation of 

 the cotton-insect is not shaken by this failure, but I must confess that I feel very 

 much discouraged after this fortnight of uninterrupted effort, and almost despair of 

 finding the moth. But this failure does not by any means warrant the acceptation of 

 the theory of the annual migration of the moth, as I can prove by the following facts : 

 During the last warm days the country around Bayou Sara has been swarming with 

 Vanessa Atlanta, and I have never been able to find a single living specimen of the per- 

 fect insect, or a living pupa in winter quarters. I could add similar instances, e. g., 

 Orchestria vittata and Dibolia aerea among the Coleoptera have during the last warm 

 days been commonly seen flying about or sitting on fence posts, etc., and I have never 

 succeeded in finding these species in their winter quarters. I repeat that the vast 

 majority of hiding places best suited for the hibernation of a Lepidopteron I mean 

 the cracks in dry, solid timber are inaccessible, and the investigation of the few of 

 these cracks which are accessible is connected with considerable difficulty aud loss of 

 time. If we are unable to find even very common insects in their winter' quarters, we 

 ought not to be astonished if we are unable to find the cotton-moth, which, if it 

 hibernates here, does so certainly in very small numbers. 



A letter from Mobile, Ala., February 17, contains the following : 



Since leaving Vicksburg I have traveled through the central portions of the cotton 

 belts of Mississippi and Alabama, stopping at Jackson, Canton, Kirkwood, Meridian, 

 and Tuscaloosa. During all this time the weather has been unfavorable ; in fact since 

 I left Bayou Sara there has been nothing but rain and cold. However, it was with 

 great interest that I entered this part of the cotton belt, as I found here for the first 

 time fine lands where a thorough search for A. argillacea is much more easily made 

 than in the more southern bottom-lands, which are full of thick forests of live-oak. 

 But after excursions made at the places mentioned, and after the information I re- 

 ceived regarding the appearance of the cotton-worm last year, I feel fully convinced 

 that this insect does not hibernate in any stage in the upland cotton districts of Mis- 

 sissippi and Alabama. 



In the course of the journey mentioned in the above extract Mr. 

 Schwarz spent some time with Dr. Anderson, in Kirkwood, Miss., and 

 with Prof. E. A. Smith, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Mr. Schwarz says in the 

 last quoted letter : 



Dr. Anderson thinks that the following conditions favorable to the hibernation of 

 the pupa may occur : First, the chrysalis might fall to the ground and be accidently 



