HISTORY OF THE LITERATURE. 327 



ern portion of the cotton -belt the frosts of winter destroy the insect in 

 all its stages, unless in situations of unusual protection, but that in the 

 more southern portion, where severe frosts rarely occur, they survive 

 the risks of winter." This theory of Glover's (given by the editor of 

 the Eeport, Mr. J. R. Dodge) was untenable so far as it included the 

 earlier states of the insect, but so far as it refers to the moth it antici- 

 pated the true state of things, as we have proved in this investigation. 



Early in 1874, Mr. Grote, in his ^' List of the ISToctuidse of North Amer- 

 ica," announced his belief that the Cotton Worm Moth hitherto called 

 Anomis xylina, is identical with the previously described Aletia argil- 

 laced of Hlibner. This A'icw was accepted on his authority hj most 

 subsequent writers, and in the first edition of this work we treated of 

 the species by the latter name. 



At the Hartford meeting of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science, the same year, Mr. Grote read quite a lengthy 

 paper entitled " The Cotton Worm of the Southern States {Aletia argil- 

 lacea Hlibner.)" In this is put forth (as original), for the fourth time in lit- 

 tle more than a quarter of a century, the familiar migration theory. Yet 

 it is approached in a more careful manner, and the arguments advanced 

 in its support are ingenious, and would have had much force had they 

 not flowed from mistaken premises. The paper shows lack of any prac- 

 tical knowledge of the facts. In the discussion which followed its reading 

 we disputed its conclusions on hibernation, and the author has added a 

 paragraph to the paper, as printed in the Proceedings of the Associa- 

 tion, which was not in it as originally read and published in the New 

 York Tribune extra, and which embodies the very point of our criti- 

 cism. Mr. Grote, starting with the proposition that there are no para- 

 sites upon the Cotton Worm, argued that the absence of such parasitic 

 checks can be easily accounted for by supposing that the States are 

 not the natural habitat of the species, but that there is an influx of the 

 moths every year. Dr. Gorham, on the other hand, bred many para- 

 sites, and yet from this opposing fact drew the same conclusion, sup- 

 posing the last brood of worms to be entirely killed by the parasites, 

 thus necessitating an incoming of the moths the ensuing season from 

 some more southern country. 



From this date (1874) up to the commencement of the official investi- 

 gation nothing of special importance appeared. There were many news- 

 l^aper articles, it is true, but they were based on the writings of others. 



Early in 1878 appeared a few copies (printed from stone for private 

 distribution) of a quarto volume of plates and explanations, by Mr. 

 Glover, and entitled '^ Manuscript Notes from my Journal — Cotton and 

 the Principal Insects, &c., frequenting or injuring the Plant in the 

 United States." This is by far the most creditable work on the sub- 

 ject that had appeared up to that time, and the plates were specially 

 commended in the award of a gold medal made to Mr. Glover for his 

 exhibit at the Paris Exposition of 1865. 



