INSECTS MISTAKEN FOR ALETIA. 351 



for the last twenty-five years. The most recent as well as the most 

 complete account of the species forms our Chapter VI of the Third Ee- 

 port of the Commission, and in this connection it is unnecessary to re- 

 peat the details there given. The reader is,, rather, referred to Plate 

 y, where the general appearance of the insect in its different states is 

 well illustrated. 



The species is one of very wide range. It is found in its greatest 

 abundance in temperate North America, but is also common in northern 

 South America, India, Java, Australia, New Zealand, and has been 

 captured on the island of Madeira, on the Isle of Wight, and at Lewes, 

 South England. It is found throughout the United States, but is in- 

 juriously abundant at intervals principally in the more northern and 

 eastern portions. 



, The eggs (Plate Y, Fig. 1) are secreted at the bases of cereal plants, in 

 the folds of grass blades, and in the sheaths surrounding the stalks. They 

 are usually laid in strings of from fifteen to twenty, and each female moth 

 may deposit as many as seven hundred or more. The eggs are laid 

 more abundantly, and the larvae consequently ai)pear more abundantly, 

 in the vicinity of old fodder- stacks or in spots where the grass grows 

 ranker or in tufts. The worms (Plate V, Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5) normally 

 feed in a more or less concealed manner on the grasses or grains, and 

 in seasons of exceptional dryness sometimes appear in enormous num- 

 bers and march from one field to another in immense armies. Ther 

 pupate under ground (Plate Y, Fig. 7). 



There are three broods annually in northern Illinois, and possibly or 

 exceptionally four, and this same number will probably hold for all 

 points between the Ohio Eiver and the great lakes, and north to cen- 

 tral New York. Further south the number increases, and in winters of 

 exceptional mildness the development of ihe insect is not checked for 

 any length of time, and its growth is only somewhat retarded. Thus 

 at "Washington, in the calendar year 1882, there were five generations. 



The insect hibernates at the North normally iu the condition of a halt- 

 grown larva, and at the South normally in that condition and as a moth. 

 It is in this latter state that it has frequently been captured and sent 

 to us as Aletia, the general coloration adding much to the resemblance. 



ASPILA VIEESCENS (Fabr.).* 



[Plate LXII, Fig. 4.] 



This species is not uncommon throughout the Southern States, and 

 has been mistaken for Aletia only in its pupa state, and it is in this 

 condition alone that any resemblance between the two species is observ- 



" This is quoted from the West Indies, but we believe it to be the same as that which 

 iu our Lists is given a« Chloridea rliexice, and which J. B. Smith, iu his Eevision of the 

 Heliothiuic (Trans. Am. Eut. Soc, x, p. 220), places in Heliothis. From notes made at 

 the British Museum and from a series of specimens, including three from Brazil and 

 Texas, we conclude that rhexicE is synonymous with virescens, the variation between 

 them not being specific '^. 



