328 



The newspaper announcements of the investigation we began in 1878 

 were very numerous, but no article worthy of note appeared before 

 September, when, in the Atlanta Constitution^ we suggested a proba- 

 bility, which we soon afterwards proved to be a fact, that the moths 

 feed upon the nectar secreted by the foliar glands of the cotton plant. 



During 1878 and 1879 the literature is confined principally to the 

 goings and comings and work of the agents of the Department of Agri- 

 culture and of the Entomological Commission. In May, 1879, how- 

 ever, we read a paper on "The Migrations and Hibernation of Aletia 

 argillacea^^ before the National Academy of Sciences, in which we gave 

 the proof which had been collected in favor of the hibernation of the 

 moths. Abstracts of this paper were published in Science Neics for 

 June 1, in the Scientific American of June 14, and elsewhere. 



In August of the same year, we also read a paper before the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, entitled "The Cotton 

 Worm in the United States," and devoted principally to disproving the 

 migration theory as put forth by Grote, and also announcing some of the 

 recent discoveries resulting from the investigation. In addition to 

 these two papers, we had, in July, delivered a lecture on the Cotton 

 "Worm before the Mobile Cotton Exchange, which was published in the 

 MoMle Register iov July 9, and afterwards extensively copied throughout 

 the South. In this paper will be found the first published suggestion 

 of the great influence which parasites and other insect enemies of Ale- 

 tia exercise on the appearance of the worms upon low grounds, and the 

 part they play in the well-known abundance of the worms during wet 

 as compared with dry weather. 



In January, 1880, was recommenced the publication of the American 

 Entomologist^ after a lapse of nine years, and the volume for that year 

 (Vol. Ill) contains much information upon Aletia and other cotton in- 

 sects, derived from our own observations and those of our assistants. 



January 28 appeared, from the Interior Department, Bulletin 3, 

 United States Entomological Commission, by C. Y. Eiley, entitled " The 

 Cotton Worm : Summary of its Katural History, with an Account of 

 its Enemies, and the best Means of controlling it; being a Eeport of 

 Progress of the Work of the Commission." This is a pamphlet of one 

 hundred and forty -four pages, with one colored plate and some eighty- 

 four woodcuts. It was the most complete treatise which had been pub- 

 lished up to that date, and it contained much new matter. Over sixty 

 pages are devoted to a consideration of remedies. 



In Maj', 1880, a few unbound and incomplete copies of a more elab- 

 orate volume on the same subject, by the Department of Agriculture, 

 were sent to some members of Congress. It is called "Eeport upon 

 Cotton Insects," and the first two hundred and eighty-four pages are 

 devoted to an account of Aletia. The work was not completed or dis- 

 tributed until the following August. This volume is published under 

 the name of J. H. Comstock, though it really consists of the first year's 



