2 REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



We may briefly give the corrected synonymy of the insect as follows : 

 Noctua xylina Say, 1830. 

 Ophiusa (?) xylina (Say), Harris, 1851. 

 Anomis grandipuncta Guende, 1852. 

 Anomis Mpunctina Guen^e, 1852. 

 Depressaria gossypioides Wailes, 1854. 

 Anomis xylina (Say), Grote, 1864. 

 Aletia argillacea Hubn., Grote, 1874. 

 Aletia xylina (Say), Eiley, 1881. 1882. 

 Aletia xylina (Say), Brooklyn Society Check List, 1882. 

 Further particulars will be found in the I^otes and in chapter XIY, 

 which treats of Past History and of Bibliography. 



CLASSIFICATOBY POSITION. 



The Cotton Worm moth belongs to that order of insects known as 

 the Lepldopteea, which includes all true butterflies and moths. The 

 moths (Heterocera) are separated into a number of families, of which 

 the Owlet Moths {Noctuidce) form one of the most important. This 

 family Noctuidce is of great interest to the economic entomologist, for it 

 contaiQs not only the insect under consideration, but all the true Cut- 

 worms, the Army Worm, the Grass Worm, the Boll or Corn Worm, the 

 Cabbage Plusia, and many others of scarcely less.importance.2" 



DESTRUCTIVENESS OF THE WORM. 



An impartial calculation of the money loss to the cultivator caused 

 by injury to the great staples of the country from their insect enemies, 

 is sure to startle us by its magnitude when the loss is aggregated. Such 

 a calculation of the losses which the Cotton Worm (not to speak of other 

 insects) inflicts on the people of the South, based upon the somewhat 

 imperfect statistical data at command, leads to the following interesting 

 conclusions, which for the most part receive explanation in the facts 

 embodied in this report. The calculation embraces fourteen years 

 after the close of the civil war, and was made by Mr. C. E. Dodge, and 

 verified for us by Mr. J. E. Dodge, the statistician. Any extraneous 

 causes which tend to retard the growth of the plant, also tend to swell 

 the percentage of injury by the worm when it abounds. Where an early 

 stand is secured, with thorough cultivation and exemption from other 

 causes of injury, there the percentage of loss is least, even in bad Cotton 

 Worm years. The percentage of loss is, also, dependent on location. 

 When the injury is done early in the season, the loss in localities of 

 heaviest production, or where the fields are numerous and contiguous, 

 is nearly double what it is where the fields are more isolated. In years 

 of severe injury, from 30 to 98 per cent, of the crop may be ruined upon 

 some plantations, while on others the loss will be trifling. The highest 

 average of loss is sustained in the southern portion of the belt, as in 

 Florida and southern Texas. It increases also in a westerly direction, 



