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Anomis (Aletia) argillacea, Hub.—The Cotton-worm Moth. 
This species is widely distributed over the continent, having been 
taken in South America and the West Indies as well as the United 
States and Canada. The larva is the well known cotton-worm of the 
South or wherever that plant is raised, and the species is usually 
known by the name Anomis sylina of Say. 
The cotton-worm has sixteen legs, but the first pair of abdominal 
legs are smaller than the rest and are of but little use in walking, so 
that instead of gliding along when it walks it loops up the back 
like the measuring-worm. The most common color is light green, 
with black dot along a yellowish subdorsal line, and with black dots 
beneath. 
The moth has the fore wings a nearly- uniform reddish brown with 
a dark oval discal spot centered with two pale spots. The head and 
thorax are of the same color, but the hind wings are smoky brown 
with a slight bronze reflection. The abdomen above is of the same 
color, not tufted. 
According to the best authority there are three broods of the worms 
in the South, appearing from June to September, but as we go north 
the number probably lessens and they would be in their northern 
limit single brooded. The female deposits from 400 to 600 eggs r 
which hatch in two days. The worms at first feed upon the soft parts 
of the leaves, but afterward eat not only portions of the leaves but 
also buds, blossoms, and the calyx leaves at the base of the boll, thus 
causing the lobes which hold the cotton to fall entirely back and allow 
the cotton to drop at the slightest touch. They cast their skins five 
times and come to their growth in fifteen or twenty days. The pupa 
is formed by folding a leaf together and lining it with silk, from 
which the moth emerges in from seven to fourteen days. 
Remedies .—As cotton is but little xaised in Illinois, there is not 
much prospect of extensive damage from this insect. Where it does 
occur, the use of Paris-green, in the same manner as employed for the 
Ten-lined Potato Beetle, will probably be as serviceable as any of the 
many remedies that have been recommended. 
Plusia balluca, Gey.—The Hop Plusia. 
We may judge from Rev. C. J. S. Bethune’s article in the report of the 
Entomological Society of Ontario, for 1872, that this insect is confined 
to the cooler portions of the country, being, as he says, “essentially a 
Canadian insect,” but probably found to some extent where its food 
plant, the hop, is cultivated, though it has not, as yet, done serious 
damage. . , 
When full grown the caterpillar is a green brown, nearly an men 
and a quarter long; the body thickest in the middle, with only three 
pairs of abdominal legs, so that it loops a little in walking. 
