INSECTS MISTAKEN FOR ALEXIA. 
351 
for the last twenty-live years. The most reeent as well as the most 
complete account of the species forms our Chapter VI of the Third Re- 
port of the Commission, and in this connection it is unnecessary to re- 
peat the details there given. The reader is, rather, referred to Plate 
V, where the general appearance of the insect in its different states is 
well illustrated. 
The species is one of very wide range. It is found in its greatest 
abundance in temperate North America, but is also common in northern 
South America, India, Java, Australia, New Zealand, and has been 
captun d on the island of Madeira. 00 the Isle of Wight, and at Lewes, 
South England. It is found throughout the United States, but is in- 
juriously abundant at intervals principally in the more northern and 
eastern portions. 
The eggs (Plate V, Pig, 1) are secreted at the bases of cereal plants, iu 
the folds of grass blades, and in the sheaths surrounding the stalks. They 
are usually laid in strings of from fifteen to twenty, and each female moth 
may deposit as many as seven hundred or nunc. The eggs are laid 
more abundantly, and the larva' consequently appear more abundantly, 
in the vicinity of old fodder stacks or iu spots where the grass grows 
ranker or in tufts. The worms (Plate V, Figs. 2, 3, 4,5) normally 
feed in a more or less concealed manner on the grasses or grains, ami 
in seasons of exceptional dryness sometimes appear in enormous num- 
bers and march from one field to another in immense armies. They 
pupate under ground (Plate V. Pig. 7). 
There are three broods annually in northern Illinois, and possibly or 
exceptionally four, and this same number will probably hold for all 
points between the Ohio Piver and the great lakes, ami north to cen- 
tral New York. Further south the number increases, and in winters of 
exceptional mildness the development of the insect is not checked for 
any length of time, and its growth is only somewhat retarded. Thus 
at Washington, in the calendar year 1882, there were live generations. 
The insect hibernates at the North normally ia the condition of a half- 
grown larva, and at the South normally iu that condition and as a moth. 
Jt is in this latter state that it has frequently been captured and sent 
to us as Aletia, the general coloration adding much to the resemblance. 
Astila virescens (Fabr.).* 
[Plate LXII, Fig. 4.j 
This species is not uncommon throughout the Southern States, and 
has been mistaken for Aletia only in its pupa state, and it is in this 
condition alone that any resemblance between the two species is observ- 
" This is quoted from the West Indies, hut we believe it to he the same as that which 
in our Lists is given as Chloridea rhexhe, and which J. B. Smith, in his Revision of the 
Heliothina- (Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, x, p. 220), places in Heliothis. From notes made at 
the British Museum and from a series of specimens, including three from Brazil and 
Texas, we conclude that rhejricv is synonymous with virescens, the variation hetweeu 
them not hcing specific ie . 
