NOTES. [103] 



cold or frost than Gossypium. We find that the plant has been received by Dr. 

 Vasey, botanist of the Department of Agriculture, from several parties in Florida, 

 with inquiries as to the vahie of the fiber. Urena lohata was, until very recently, not 

 known to occur in 'the United States. It is common on dry hill pastures almost 

 everywhere in the "West Indies and southward to Guiana and Brazil, and is also re- 

 ported from Western Africa, East Indies, China, and some of the Pacific islands. 

 It seems to thrive very well in Florida, and is likely to spread to other adjacent 

 States. 



' ' The Anomia erosa, the eggs and young larvae of which were not uncommon on the 

 leaves of the Urena, may be distinguished from Aletia by the paler, more translucent 

 character of both egg and larva, and by the first pair of prolegs being quite obsolete, 

 in which character it resembles the Anomis exacta\_texana'\ that affects cotton in Texas. 

 Aletia larvse that had been fed on cotton, when placed upon the Urena, refused to feed 

 upon it, and finally perished. 



"We recently took occasion to carefully examine the Malvaceous plants in the 

 herbarium of the Department of Agriculture with some quite interesting results,* al- 

 though a herbarium is naturally the least favorable place one can choose for an ento- 

 mological investigation of this character, as plants that are least injured by insects 

 are most apt to be collected, and the mode of preserving the plants still further 

 reduces the chances of finding traces of Aletia, because only one side of the leaf is 

 available for examination. How small this chance is may be illustrated by the fact 

 that on the specimens of Gossypium in the herbarium no Aletia eggs or egg-shells 

 could be discovered, and that only one specimen showed any trace of being injured 

 by any insect whatever. Nevertheless a number of eggs or fragments of such — some 

 of them from their structure very closely related to Aletia — were found on the follow- 

 ing plants: Malvastrum spicatum, from Florida and Nicaragua; Urena ribesia (Which 

 is considered a form of U. lohata), from Southern Florida; Favonia typlialeoides, from 

 Cuba; Sida glomerata, from Cuba. 



"One object of this examination was to discover, if possible, the particular Malva- 

 ceous plant upon which Aletia feeds in the States north of the cotton belt, but this 

 proved to be an almost complete failure, because the herbarium contained only six 

 specimens of such plants from the more northern States, not counting sixteen speci- 

 mens cultivated in the agricultural grounds at Washington. However, on a specimen 

 of Sida spinosa, from York County, Pennsylvania, an egg was found which has every 

 appearance of that of Aletia. 



"We would earnestly call upon entomologists who may read these pages to aid us 

 in obtaining evidence of the food-plant of the insect in the 6iore northern States by 

 an examination of the plants indicated by an asterisk in the following list, as it is 

 upon such that the insect will probably be found at some future time, but only late 

 in the season : 



LOCAI.ITIES FOR MAXVACEOUS PLANTS PROM GRAY'S FLORA. 



AWicea officinalis L.^Salt marshes coast of New England and New York. (Nat. from 



Eu.) 

 Malva rotundifolia L. — Waysides and cultivated grounds, common. (Nat. from Eu.) 

 8ylv€8tris L. — Waysides. (Adv. from Eu.) 



moschata L. — Has escaped from gardens to waysides. (Adv. from Eu.) 

 alcea L. — Has escaped from gardens in Chester County, Pennsylvania. (Adv. 

 from Eu.) 

 CaUirrhoe triangulata Gray. — Dry prairies, Wisconsin, Illinois and southward. 



alcceoides Gray. — Barren oak lands. Southern Kentucky and Tennessee. 

 Napa?a dioica L. — Limestone valleys, Pennsylvania and southward to the valley of 



Virginia, west to Ohio and Illinois, rare. 

 ^MaUastrum angustum Gray. — Rock Island in the Mississippi, Illinois. 

 • coccineum Gray. — Abounds on the plains from Iowa and Minnesota west- 



ward. 



