354 REPORT 4. UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 

 Platyhypena scabra (Fabr.). 

 [Plate LXII, Fig. 1.] 



This moth is common in almost every portion of the United States, 

 and throufi^hout the South it flies during the winter on all warm, sunny 

 days. Hence, although quite dissimilar to Aletia, it has been fre- 

 quently mistaken for this moth, and sent to us as evidence of the adult 

 hibernation of Aletia. In the larva state we have found it feeding upon 

 clover and grass at Saint Louis, transforming to pupa within tY;'0 or 

 three leaves loosely webbed together. At Washington we have also 

 Teared it from Solid ago. There are two or three annual generations in 

 the latitude of Washington, and more in the Cotton States. 



The larva and pupa were described by Professor Comstock, in the 

 Annual Eeport of the Department of Agriculture for 1879, p. 252, the 

 larva only colorationally; while the larva was, again, very imperfectly 

 •described by Mr. D. W. Coquillett, in the Canadian Entomologist, Vol. 

 XII, p. 43 (1880). The larva lacks the first pair of prolegs, and in gen- 

 eral appearance looks much like a green, immaculate specimen of the 

 •Cotton Worm, like which it also acts. We have bred from this larva 

 at Washington the Chalcid parasite UiipJectrus pJatyhypence Howard. 



Phoberia atomaris (Hubner). 



[Plate LXII, Fig. 3.] 



This is a very common moth throughout the Southern States. It was 

 figured and described by Hiibner in his Zutrage zur Sammlung exotis- 

 -cher Schmettlinge, and is mentioned by Gueuee as figured in an unpub- 

 3ished drawiug by Abbot. We are unable to learn, however, that the 

 •early states have been published. This moth has been frequently sent 

 to us from the South during the winter by observers who mistook it for 

 Aletia, and was captured by Judge J. F. Bailey at Marion, Ala., Feb- 

 ruary 16, 1880, while feeding on the nectar from the blossoms of the 

 Mock Orange (Cerasus carolinensis).* (See note 19.) 



* American Entomologist, III, p. 77, March, 1880. 



