[100] REPORT 4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
specimens broadens at the sutures, producing thereby a row of more or less distinct 
yellowish, slightly swollen spots in the region of the stigmata. All warts surrounded 
by a white annulus, those on dorsum sometimes obsolete. Stigmata brownish with 
white annulus. Anal plate yellowish with a transverse row of four larger black spots, 
and f ur smaller ones at posterior margin. All legs yellowish. 
Pupa. — Average length, 18 mm . General color dark brown ; posterior, flexile portion 
of abdominal joints 4-6 dark yellow ; head, thorax and wing-sheaths very finely and 
closely granulate ; abdomen also finely granulate, the granulations concave in the 
center ; flexile borders very finely punctate. Head rather small, well set off from the 
thorax. Wing-cases broad, reaching to posterior margin of the fourth abdominal 
joint. Cremaster dark brown or blackish, ample, parallel, rounded at tip, slightly 
bent ventrally where there is at base an anal concavity ; rugose, with strong carina 
dorsally, extendiug to base of terminal joint; booklets yellowish-brown, eight in 
number, two dorsal and two lateral short, and four terminal which are longer, the 
middle pair longest. 
Note 4 (p. 6). — In alcoholic specimens the first pair often appear as mere tubercles 
without clasping hooks, but these really exist, though withdrawn frorn sight. The 
legs are perfect, therefore, and simply atrophied. In this respect the larva of Aletia 
xijlina (Say) differs from that of Anomis texana Riley, which occurs in South Texas, 
for in this last species the claspers are wanting and the legs really obsolete and re- 
placed by mere tubercles. Otherwise the resemblance between the two larvas is such 
as to cause them to be easily confounded. 
Note 5 (p. 7). — The larva of Plusia dyaus Grote is not uncommon in spring and 
early summer on cotton. Being a semi-looper and bearing in color and mode of 
pupation a general resemblance to the Aletia larva, it is often mistaken therefor by 
planters. It is invariably pale green, without dark shades, and may have helped to 
the popular belief in the first worms being green. But while we have invariably found 
dark individuals among the earliest and throughout the summer generations, we were 
struck daring a trip made October, 1879, through Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, 
by their great preponderance, the intensity of the black (often obliterating the white 
annuli and subdorsal stripes), and the early stage of growth (often after the first 
molt and very generally after the second) in which it appeared. In the spring and 
early summer the black is more often confined to the fifth and sixth stages. 
Note 6 (p. 7). — The young larva of Spilosoma acrea makes somewhat similar but 
larger blotches. 
Note 7 (p. 8). — Mr. Schwarz succeeded in feeding one from the hatching period 
till it transformed to chrysalis on a species of Morning-glory (Ipomodii commutata Roem. 
& Sch.), but the chrysalis was imperfect, and finally perished. We find that quite 
a number of persons believe that the worm feeds on Abutilon and Pokeweed (Phyto- 
lacca), but the belief rests solely on theYact that these plants are often defoliated 
when the Cotton Worm is stripping the cotton fields. In the case of Phytolacca it is 
an entirely different worm (the Geometrid Phihrcwe albosignata Packard) which does 
the-work, and the 6ame is doubtless true of the Abutilon. Mr. Phillip Winfree, of 
Mulberry Creek, La. (De Bow's Ind. Res. of S. &, S. W., 1852, p. 173), remarks that 
it feeds in the West Indies on a plant called the salve bush, resembling somewhat 
the common Mullein. There is great liability to error, however, in observations of 
this kind, on account of the great resemblance in the earlier larval stages of several 
closely allied species. This subject of possible food-plants of Aletia xylina is more 
fully considered in Note 15 of this same report. 
Note 8 (p. 9). — The male genitalia in this species are remarkable for having two 
extensile organs, usually retracted and showing as dense tufts of hair, but capable of 
extension to thrice the length of the rest of the armature: also for two attenuated 
double-jointed spines which lie when at rest in a sheath on one side of the penis, 
