18 REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



moth, if in a sufficiently advanced state when the chrysalis is buried, will 

 vainly attempt to escape and pus]i through its unnatural surroundings 



Regarding the ability of the moth to survive the winter, nearly one- 

 half of the more intelligent correspondents state that they have known 

 the moth to be found flying during warm days in the winter, and that 

 it consequently hibernates in that state. Mr. John T. Humphreys, of 

 Morganton, l!^. 0., who was for a while employed by the State of Georgia 

 in entomological work, says that he has absolute proof of the hiberna- 

 tion of the moth. 



Page after page of testimony and experience from the most competent 

 and reliable planters might be adduced in support of the fact that the 

 moth is to be seen either hidden in sheltered situations or flying during 

 the milder weather of winter and in spring, in all of the southern por- 

 tion of the belt. The situations in which it is most often reported aa 

 sheltering are under the shingles of gin-houses, under rails, and under 

 the loose bark and in the hollows of trees and prostrate logs. In old 

 pine stumps the sap wood separates from the heart- wood and forms ex- 

 cellent retreats for this purpose. The general hue of the large scales of 

 pine bark is sufficiently close to that of the moth to make the resem- 

 blance protective. A dense forest of long-leaved pines also modiflea 

 and equalizes the winter temperature. These facts would lead one to 

 suppose that pine forests offer unusually favorable conditions for hiber- 

 nation, and Mr. Humphreys has, in fact, found the moth hibernating 

 under pine scales, while some of our most reliable correspondents report 

 having seen the moths sportihg in great numbers in the edges of pine 

 forests during the month of March. 



Nevertheless, the persistent search by Mr. Schwarz in the winter of 

 1878-'79^^, under our direction, failed to reveal the moth under pine 

 bark; whereby we were led to the conclusion that it seeks winter 

 shelter some distance from the ground. It has been reported by some 

 correspondents in greatest numbers in swamps of sweet gum, oak, mag- 

 nolia, poplar, &c., such as are found in southern Alabama. These 

 swamps are warm, moist, and miasmatic, and the moths are said to have 

 been seen literally i^acked together in a torpid state in the hollows and 

 burrows made in rotting logs by boring larvge. 



The evidence on this point of the hibernation of the moth would be 

 overwhelming did it come from scientific observers ; but, unfortunately, 

 alUed species are so often and so easily mistaken for Aletia that doubt 

 still surrounds the subject. The liability to confound hibernating spe- 

 cies is all the greater in that characteristic markings are more or less 

 effaced or faded. The Hypena scabralis (rabr.),^^ a moth belongiugto a 

 different group {Deltoids), and which hibernates in the imago state all 

 over the country, is especially common in the Southern States, and large 

 numbers have been sent to us as the genuine Aletia. It is nearly of 

 the same size and form, and while normally of a darker brown, faded 

 hibernating specimens are easily mistaken for the Cotton Moth because 



