18 REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
moth, if in a sufficiently advanced state when the chrysalis is buried, will 
vainly attempt to escape and push through its unnatural surroundings 
Regarding the ability of the moth to survive the winter, nearly ono- 
half of the more intelligent correspondents state that they have known 
the moth to be found flying during warm days in the winter, and that 
it consequently hibernates in that state. Mr. John T. Humphreys, of 
Morganton, N. C, who was for a while employed by the State of Georgia 
in entomological work, says that he has absolute proof of the hiberna- 
tion of the moth. 
Page after page of testimony and experience from the most competent 
and reliable planters might be adduced in support of the fact that the 
moth is to be seen either hidden in sheltered situations or flying during 
the milder weather of winter and in spring, in all of the southern por- 
tion of the belt. The situations in which it is most often reported as 
sheltering are under the shingles of gin-houses, under rails, and under 
the loose bark and in the hollows of trees and prostrate logs. In old 
pine stumps the sapwood separates from the heart-wood and forms ex- 
cellent retreats for this purpose. The general hue of the large scales of 
pine bark is sufficiently close to that of the moth to make the resem- 
blance protective. A dense forest of long-leaved pines also modifies 
and equalizes the winter temperature. These facts would lead one to 
suppose that pine forests offer unusually favorable conditions for hiber- 
nation, and Mr. Humphreys has, in fact, found the moth hibernating 
under pine scales, while some of our most reliable correspondents report 
having seen the moths sporting in great numbers in the edges of pine 
forests during the month of March. 
^Nevertheless, the persistent search by Mr. Schwarz in the winter of 
1878-'79 n , under our direction, failed to reveal the moth under pine 
bark; whereby we were led to the conclusion that it seeks winter 
shelter some distance from the ground. It has been reported by some 
correspondents in greatest numbers in swamps of sweet gum, oak, mag- 
nolia, poplar, &c., such as are found in southern Alabama. These 
swamps are warm, moist, and miasmatic, and the moths are said to have 
been seen literally packed together in a torpid state in the hollows and 
burrows made in rotting logs by boring larvae. 
The evidence on this point of the hibernation of the moth would be 
overwhelming did it come from scientific observers ; but, unfortunately, 
allied species are so often and so ea-ily mistaken for Aletia that doubt 
still surrounds the subject. The liability to confound hibernating spe- 
cies is all the greater in that characteristic markings are more or less 
effaced or faded. The Uypena scabralis (Fabr.), 18 a moth belonging to a 
different group (Deltoids), and which hibernates in the imago state all 
over the country, is especially common in the Southern States, and large 
numbers have been sent to us as the genuine Aletia. It is nearly of 
the same size and form, and while normally of a darker brown, faded 
hibernating specimens are easily mistaken for the Cotton Moth because 
