NOTES. 
[99] 
" When these insects first appeared, various attempts were made to destroy them; 
but so rapid is their increase, that nothing done by the hand of man, has been able to 
diminish their numbers, so as to be in the least perceptible. Nor is it probable that 
uything will destroy them, excepting such causes as have already been related; viz. 
powerful storms of wind ami rain, and their own prodigious numbers destroying their 
food before the completion of th^ summer season. The Palma-Chrisf i and Itenne. have 
both been said to keep them away from the cotton, and I have known them planted for 
that purpose about the cotton fields, but without producing any good effect; and I 
belieVe that the planters are now satisfied that they are useless." 
Descriptions of the earlier states of Aletia xylina (Say). 
Egg. — Diameter O.G mm , plano-convex, circular. Around its center aro grouped three 
series of elongate either pentagonal or hexagonal cells, the middle series largest, this 
central area or micropile Mibpentagonal ; radiating ribs quite sharp and somewhat 
wavy, from 35 to 40 in number, and about half of them more or less shortened ; cross 
ribs 19 to 14 in number. Color, at liist a delicate bluish- or sea-green, becoming a 
more dingy yellowish-green when near the hatching period. Empty shell white, 
glistening and transparent. 
Larva. First Stage.— Length when just from egg 1.4 mm ; quite slender. Head im- 
maculate, much larger than joiut 1. Legs very long, except first two pairs of prolegs, 
which are rudimentary and scarcely perceptible. Color almost white, with a faint 
tinge of green. Head pale yellow, ocelli black. Piliferous warts blackish (see Fig. 
2, p. 6), each giving rise to a slend.r dusky hair. 
Second Stage. — Length just after molt 3.C miu , similar to previous stage, except that 
the warts of the body become more distinct, and that the characteristic black spots of 
the brad appear, 11 each side, each furnished with a stiff blackish hair. The rudi- 
mentary legs are also somewhat longer. 
Third Stage. — Length G ,nm . In this stage tho final markings, or those of the full- 
grown larva, begin to show, though there is much variation in color. The most 
strongly-marked individuals have a broad, deep black, mediodwrsal stripe, bordered 
each side by a fine, clear white line; the sides and venter are whitish or yellowish- 
white, the sides often slightly dusky and with a faint indication of the white sub- 
stigmatal line ; stigmata very small and dusky. Head orange ; piliferous spots with 
a white or yellowish annulus. 
Fourth Stage. — Length l) Inm . Colors bright and lines more distinctly contrasting. 
In the dark specimens, a narrow black line borders the white subdorsal, the sides are 
more dusky, and the pale supra-stigmatal lino more distinct. 
Fifth Stage.— Length about It)' 1 " 1 '. Coloration similar to that of the previous stage. 
Sijcth or last larval Stage.— Length when full grown 38 to 40 mm . Slender, tapering 
somewhat toward both ends. Head small, round, free. Legs of normal number, but 
the first pair of prolegs atrophied. Head more or less orange or ochre-yellow, marked 
with 30 regularly arranged black spots ; antenna? 3-jointed, the first joint large, coni- 
cal, fleshy; second joint shortest, often not visible, being withdrawn into the first; 
third joint slender, about as long as the first, slightly thickest toward apex; its tip 
obliquely truncated, bearing a small subjoint, a short slender, fleshy tubercle, and a 
long bristle and a shorter hair at its outer extremity. Ocelli 6, clear, colorless: 
mandibles strong, pale yellowish or greenish; tip blackish, with rather dull teeth. 
Color of body variable. Black stripes and markings of the dark specimens are deep 
velvety black. Normal color green, with longitudinal lines of a white or yellowish 
color, as follows : A fine medio-dorsal, a rather broader sub-dorsal, and coincident with 
this last and about the same width, a supra-stigmatal, and, finally, asub-stigmatal, the 
distance between the last two being about twice that between the previous two. In 
the pale specimens the medio-dorsal white line is almost always relieved by two black 
lines, or rather by a black border on cither side, but the whole dorsum is more or less 
dusky, and in the darkest specimens it may be, including the cervical shield, quite black, 
as also interspaces between the lateral lines. The supra-stigmatal line in the darkest 
