XXXIV 
INTRODUCTION. 
that have beset its preparation, it must be remembered that they are 
such as are incidental to most scientific work of an official nature, or 
done under the Government. We hope and believe, notwithstanding, 
that the work will prove of standard value to all in any way interested 
iu the matter of which it treats. 
Chapters I and II, pertaining to classification, nomenclature, destruct- 
iveness, characters, habits, and natural history of the Cotton Worm, are 
condensed as much as possible. The reasons for abiding by the specific 
name of the species originally proposed by Say are more fully given in 
Note 2 than in the text, and if the statements in regard to habits and 
natural history have at times the appearance of being dogmatic where 
they conflict with previous statement by others, it is because the facts 
have been so fully studied as to leave no room for question. The full 
hibernation of the species, within our limits, was not established till 
the spring of 1882, by our finding the newly- hatched worms the latter 
part of March on rattoon cotton in South Georgia and Florida, but. it 
was to Mr. Koebele's unflagging industry (chiefly at night), while 
stationed at Archer, Fla., for this purpose, that the hibernating moths 
were obtained during the months of December, January, February, and 
March. 
Chapter III consists of a summary, with as little detail as possible, of 
the past marked appearances of the Cotton Worm in the United States 
chronologically given, and of the history of remedies proposed for it. 
The history of the literature is given separately in Chapter XIV. 
In Chapter IV brief consideration is given to the distribution of 
Aletia xylina in other countries than the United States, showing that 
it is confined to the Western Hemisphere. 
Chapter V, by Messrs. Minot and Burgess, treats of the anatomy Of 
Aletia by two competent histologists, and while it will have interest 
principally for the scientific reader, it will prove a valuable contribu- 
tion to a phase of the subject hitherto untouched. 
Chapter VI, by Professor Smith, treats of the cotton belt, its general 
characteristics, and its peculiarities from meteorological, agricultural, ar- 
boricultural, and geological standpoints. This subject of the cotton belt 
and its characteristics is one that always interested us from the possi- 
bility that, after careful study, it might indicate the preferred hibernat- 
ing regions of the moth. Its proper consideration required not only a 
thorough knowledge of the country, but geological knowledge which we 
<lid not possess, and it is doubtful whether one could be found more 
thoroughly fitted to consider it than Professor Smith. His work has 
shown, it anything, that there is not, as we anticipated there might be, 
any necessary connection between the surface characteristics of the 
country and hibernation. This last evidently depends more on mean 
winter temperature and earliness of spring, and if any conclusion is 
warranted, it would seem to be that the dark, low, and rich soils most 
conducive to the increase of tin worm are not the most conducive to 
