CHAPTEE I. 



CLASSIFICATION AND NOMENCLATUEE. DESTEUCTIYE- 



NESS. 



POPULAR AND SCIENTIFIC NAMES. 



Among planters the Cotton Worm is very often termed the *^ Cater- 

 pillar," or the "Cotton Caterpillar," and not infrequently the "Army 

 Worm." We have elsewhere shown* why this last term should be dis- 

 countenanced in the literature of the subject, unless prefixed by the 

 word " Cotton," and, both for the sake of brevity and to prevent con- 

 fusion, the name used in this Bulletin, and by which the insect in this 

 larva state is very generally known, is, on the whole, preferable. In 

 Louisiana, more particularly, the French term " chenille," meaning cat- 

 erpillar, is commonly employed. For the perfect insect the term "fly" 

 is more often used in some parts of the South than the term "moth," 

 but the latter is preferable from an entomological view. 



As to the scientific name, the species was first described by Thomas 

 Say, in 1827, as Noctua xylina^ in a letter to Dr. C. W. Capers, published 

 in the Southern Agriculturist (vol. I, p. 203), but overlooked by most later 

 writers. Ilarris, in his Correspondence, placed the " Cotton Moth " near 

 the genus Ophiusa, while later authors more correctly referred it to Iliib- 

 ners genus A7iomis. Mr. A. E. Grote, in lS74,t arrived at the conclusion 

 that Say's xyJina was nothing more nor less than the Aletia argillacea 

 of nuijuer, described and figured by this author in 1823^. In this 

 opinion he was followed by subsequent authors, and this name was 

 adopted in Bulletin 3 of the Commission, and also in the Special Eeport 

 of the Agricultural Department. Eecent studies,^ however, indicate 

 that, although our Cotton Worm moth is found at Bahia, the locality 

 from which A. argillacea was originally described, this name was, with- 

 out much doubt, given by niibner to an entirely distinct species also 

 found in the same locality, and Say's specific name of xylina should 

 still hold for our Cotton Worm moth. 



Accepting the difference between Anotnis and Aletia as of generic 

 value, our Cotton Moth should still be placed in Aletia^ and the common 

 or i^opular name "Aletia," which we proposed in the Bulletin, and which 

 has come into quite extensive use in the last four years, may, therefore, 

 be retained. 



* See Second Annual Eeport on the noxious, beneficial, and other insects of the State of Missouri, 

 1870, p. 37. 

 tProc. Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci. for 1874, 1875, v. 23, Seo. B, p. 13-18. 



