General Notes. [April, 



feed upon it, and finally 



We recently took occasion to carefully examine the Mal- 

 vaceous plants in the herbarium of the Department of Agri- 

 culture with some quite interesting results, although a her- 

 barium is naturally the least favorable place one can choose 

 for an entomological 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 fiiding 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 frag- 

 ments of such— some of them from their structure very closely 

 related to Aletia were found on the following plants : — Malvas- 

 trum spicatum from Florida and Nicaragua ; Urena ribesia (which 

 is considered a form of U. lobataj, from Southern Florida ; Pa- 

 haleoides from Cuba ; Sida glojnerata from Cuba. 



One object of this examination was to discover, if possible, the 

 particular Malvaceous 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 six- 

 teen specimens cultivated in the agricultural grounds at Wash- 

 ington. However, on a specimen of Sida spinosa from York 

 county, Penna., 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 more 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 : 



LOCALITIES FOR MALVACEOUS PLANTS FROM GRAY'S FLORA. 



Althcza officinalis L— Salt marshes coast of New England and New York. (Nat. from 



, York Co., Kanaw 



