2 EEPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
We may briefly give the corrected synonymy of the insect as follows; 
Noctua xylina Say, 1830. 
Ophiusa (?) xylina (Say), Harris, 1851. 
Anomis grandipuncta Guen6e, 1852. 
Anomis bipunctina Guen^e, 1852. 
Depressaria gossypioides Wailes, 1854. 
Anomis xylina (Say), Grote, 1864. 
Aletia argillacea LTubn., Grote, 1874. 
Aletia xylina (Say), Eiley, 18S1, 1882. 
Aletia xylina (Say), Brooklyn Society Check List, 1882. 
Further particulars will be found in the Notes and in chapter XIV, 
which treats of Past History and of Bibliography. 
CLASSIPICATOBY POSITION. 
The Cotton Worm moth belongs to that order of insects known as 
the Lepidoptera, which includes all true butterflies and moths. The 
moths (Heterocera) are separated into a number of families, of which 
the Owlet Moths (Noctuidw) form one of the most important. This 
family Noctnidcc is of great interest to the economic entomologist, for it 
contains not only the insect under consideration, but all the true Cut- 
worms, the Army Worm, the Grass Worm, the Boll or Corn Worm, the 
Cabbage Plusia, and many others of scarcely less importance. 28 
DESTRUCTIVENESS OF THE WORM. 
An impartial calculation of the money loss to the cultivator caused 
by injury to the great staples of the country from their insect enemies, 
is sure to startle us by its magnitude when the loss is aggregated. Such 
a calculation of the losses which the Cotton Worm (not to speak of other 
insects) inflicts on the people of the South, based upon the somewhat 
imperfect statistical data at command, leads to the following interesting 
conclusions, which for the most part receive explanation in the facts 
embodied in this report. The calculation embraces fourteen years 
after the close of the civil war, and was made by Mr. C. E. Dodge, and 
verified for us by Mr. J. R. Dodge, the statistician. Any extraneous 
causes which tend to retard the growth of the plant, also tend to swell 
the percentage of injury by the worm when it abounds. Where an early 
stand is secured, with thorough cultivation and exemption from other 
causes of injury, there the percentage of loss is least, even in bad Cotton 
Worm years. The percentage of loss is, also, dependent on location. 
When the injury is done early in the season, the loss in localities of 
heaviest production, or where the. fields are numerous and contiguous, 
is nearly double what it is where the fields are more isolated. In years 
of severe injury, from 30 to 98 per cent, of the crop may bo ruined upon 
some plantations, while on others the loss will be trifling. The highest 
average 6f loss is sustained in the southern portion of the belt, as in 
Florida and southern Texas. It increases also in a westerly direction, 
