352 REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION". 
able. We have already mentioned (p. 17) an instance in which the 
plowing up of a number of the pupSB of this species was considered ab- 
solute evidence of the underground hibernation of Aletia, and indeed 
to separate the two species in this state requires a trained eye. In gen- 
eral appearance the pupa of rhexia is lighter in color and has a blunter 
anal extremity than that of Aletia. The chief distinguishing character 
can be readily seeu with a hand lens, and consists of two long, slender 
thorns projecting from the anal end of the body and converging until 
their points meet. 
The larva feeds upon Solanaceous plants, and we have bred it from 
Solanum seiglinge and Physalis viscosa at Saint Louis, where the former 
plant is very rare. A description of the larva is given in Note 16. The 
moth is smaller than Aletia, and has olivaceous front wings crossed by 
three light bands, each relieved by a dark greenish shade on its outer 
order ; the hind wings are silvery white, slightly tipped with dusky. 
Drasteria erechtea (Cramer). 
[Plate LXII, Fig. 5.] 
This common moth is indigenous to North America. It is found from 
Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, and west to California. In the 
British Museum Catalogue it is stated that the Hudson's Bay specimens 
are hardly more than half the size of those from New York, and Mr. 
Grote {Canadian Entomologist, VII, p. 48) states that while the California 
specimens agree with the typical form from the East*, they are larger. 
There is also a seasonal difference in size, and we already remarked in 
1869 (American Entomologist, I, p. 206), "We have observed that the 
spring brood of this insect are always several sizes smaller than the 
autumnal brood, and at one time we supposed the two forms to belong 
to distinct species." We have since abundantly verified the fact of the 
generally smaller size of the vernal as compared with the autumnal 
forms, and it has been recognized also by others (see Packard, Papilio, 
II, pp. 147-148). Eggs obtained by us from a large female, October 14, 
1881, hatched October 31, and the moths issued from January 9 to April 
30, 1882, all being of the smaller size. The colorational variation occurs 
in all broods and is so great as to have given rise to some eight differ- 
ent synouyms. 
While the larvae of this moth have never occurred in what may be 
called injurious numbers, yet feeding as they do on grass and clover, 
they occasion a constant drain upon forage crops. In one instance they 
have been sent to us as feeding on Cottonwood (Colman's Rural World, 
January 26, 1876). The adult is familiar to almost everyone who has 
traversed a meadow as the little darting moth which often tlies up be- 
fore one, dropping a few yards away and concealing itself at the base 
of some clump of grass. In the Northern States there are two annual 
generations, and the insect hibernates as a pupa. In the middle lati- 
