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Psyche 10:22-30, 1903.

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2 2 PSYCHE [February
'She scale is unusually dark and strongly chithized. There is apunctured band running anteriorly from the anal plates in the middle line. Antennae %jointed.
Below I give measurements of the antennae of the present insect, and also of 6- and 7-jointed E. f rmastri, froin slides prepared by Mr. Pergande. Joints: (1.1 (2.1 (3.) (4.) (5.1 (6.1 (7.1 (8.) ? 33- 42. 24. 36. 2 1. 18. 33-
7
4-5- 45- 60. 17- 2 I. 34-
-
? 30- 00. I 7. 21. 34- - -
BUTTON-BUSH INSECTS.
BY JAMES G. NEEDHAM, LAKE FOREST, ILL,
Entomologists who collect from flowers know how many insects gather about the heads of the button-bush - the "honeyballs " of popular nomenclature. These heads are conspicuously white, their fragrance is very marked, their nectar is abundant, often filling the corollas so full that short-tongued insects may sip from them, and the protandrous stamens heap their pollen upon the style knob, which then protrudes conveniently for the benefit of pollen feeders. By carefully watch- ing these flowers through their season, one may obtain nearly all the flower-visiting insects of his neighborhood.
My own too brief season of butterfly collecting was spent at Piasa Bluffs on the Mississippi, where there were a few button-bush clumps along the river banks under the edge of the bluffs; and there the butterflies swarmed -all the butterflies of that vicinity. They made a picture there which I shall always remember with delight. Dozens of them in a bright hued throng, poising on the swaying heads, or hovering over the dark green clumps that were set at the out& edge of a thin fringe of vegetation that stretched between the gray cliffs above the shining river below.
The predominant visitors are butterflies, but this predominance is unduly apparent because these are so conspicuous. Robertson (Bot. gaz.; vol. 16, 65-66) lists 60 species of insects as visitors to the button-bush flowers. Of these 26 are butterflies and 20 are bees.
I spent the summer of 1899 in Lake Forest; and there, under favorable condi- tions, began a study of the insects affecting the button-bush - not the transient visitors of the flowering season, but the resident insects that enter more closely into ecological relations with it. I found some 30 species of these, and made some observations on the habits of many of them. I planned to continue my observa- Pni-hr 10:022-3 1 11403). htlp.Y/~che aitclub ore/lW10-0022 hlml



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19031 NEEOHAM: - RUTTON-RUSH INSECTS 23
tions, but other matters came into my hands demanding all my time, and no further opportunity being now in prospect, I have concluded to publish such facts as are already gathered.
I studied the button-bush in a shallow open pond on the country place of Mr. R. M. Bissell, within easy walking distance of my home, and in a "pot-hole" in the woods near by. The pot-hole was filled almost exclusively with a dense and tall growth of these shrubs. In the pond the clumps were scattered, low and broad in form, and were restricted to the borders of a flat island that lay in the midst of it. This pond is of several acres extent, and is hardly too deep for wading with hip boots anywhere. But it is being filled, by the land building of the button-bush around the borders of the island, and by that of the tussock sedges that fringe all its outer borders. Each summer it is reduced by evaporation to a few little pools, at which time the button-bush clumps stand upon a black soil that is fissured with deep sun-cracks. On the island, clumps of glaucous willow and red dogwood crowd the button-bush clumps in the rear, and they arc generally flanked by some or all of the following weaker plants : CaZmnagrostzs camzdensis, Paniczdariafluilans, Carex utriculata, Dit2i;:hium spathactwm, Spfirganium eurycarpm; Sag'Utaria variabilis. The clumps here are impenetrable thickets. Muskrats build their huge hum- mocks under them, immensely furthering the land-building process; tree frogs climb the gray trunks, and red wing blackbirds build their nests in the tangled branches. The density of their growth excludes other large plants, but an interest- ing group of weaklings nestle in their shadows: Viola /;latzda, Scutellaria galerim- lato Galium trifidtdrn, and Onocka sensibilis. At the surface of the water the trunks are closely enwrapped by a moss of the genus Amblystegium. The
button-bush is our only woody representative of the madder family. Coffee is akin to it, and most of its relatives are tropical shrubs. It is not well
adapted in some respects to our latitude. It develops only unprotected buds, that
are killed each winter together with the terminal shoots, the new growth from adventitious buds in spring being late in appearing. One result of this, with a bearing on the insect life found associated with it, is that the shoots of one season are lateral to those of the preceding season, and the growth is scragged, and there are many dead tops, broken ends, and exposed pith cavities. Very few insects have been recorded from the button-bush hitherto, aside from the flower visitors. Dr. Packard in the 5th report of the U. S. entomological com- mission mentions three, two of these notes being citations of earlier records by Harris and Riley.
These are : -
1. Platysamia cecropia (Linne), p. 402.
2. CaIIosamia promethea (Drury), p. 525. 3. Hyphantria cunea (Drury), p. 249.




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24 PSYCHE
[February
These are all general feeders on foliage of woody plants. An undctermined
tineid from Cephalantht~s is mentioned in Insect life, vol. 3, p. 18. These and
Robertson's list of visitors to the flowers, are the only records 1 have found. When beginning my study I wrote Dr. L. 0. Howard, asking him whether the records of the Division of entomology of the Department of agriculture included other species, and he kindly sent me the following list: - I. Harrisitnemna trisignata (Walk.).
2. Laverna cephalanthiella Chamb.
3. Aphis cephalanthi Thomas.
4. An undetermined cecido~nyiid.
In my own studies I have come upon only the first of Dr. Packard's list and the third of Dr. Howard's. I will now give my own list, omitting all flower .visitors except such as are not included in Robertson's list, arranging them by orders first with notes and observations, and concluding with a summary list according to habits.
LEPIDOPTERA. I. Melanomma auricincta~ihn Grote. Pupae of this species may be found singly in pith cavities excavated in the broken ends of dead stems about half an inch in diameter, during the entire winter and early spring. They are found also in cavities excavated in the bark of the thickest of the fallen stems, generally a number near together, where conditions are favorable. The cavities in the bark are short and tortuous, and are directed toward the surface at the end and cut almost, but not quite through, by the larvae before pupating. The pith cavities in standing stems have the appearance of excavations of the wasp DAHLBOHMIA, (No. 7 post'). Although this is perhaps the most abundant of the Lepidoptera found on the button-bush, larvae were not observed. A good many heads of fruit were found still hanging in winter, wilh holes bored through them transversely to the seeds ; I did not find the borers. I thought they might perhaps be the larvae of this species, but found no proof. From pupae collected for breeding, images emerged in May. They were determined by Prof. C. H. Fernald. 2. Ac~onycta ohhnita (Smith & Abbot). This is a common leaf feeder. Its larvae when newly hatched are ramblers, feeding here a little and there a little, but when they are older they feed at the tips of the flowering shoots. They begin at the top, eating the leaves off down to stubs of the petiole, thus consuming generally two, sometimes three or four pairs of the opposite leaves, and then removing to another shoot. When not feeding they are often to be found resting in seclusion on the gray bark of the preceding year's growth. They are very frequently parasitized, especially by the big red Rhogas rileyi (No. 8 post); and the parasi- tized individuals settle upon the stems, first overspreading them with a thick mat of silk, attach their feet, and then at their death there exudes in the thoracic region a



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brownish fluid which hardens and glues the old skin to the silk. RHOGAS emerges through a big ronnd hole cut in the back of the larva, but the empty larval skin may hang through several seasons, until bleached and weathered and bare. I have found a number of them in early spring still attached, and well preserved. I bred many parasites from the larvae of this species, but only one moth; that one emerged on the 20th of July from a cocoon that was spun by the larva in the top of a SCIRPUS stem, within a nest made of deflexed bracts and flowering branches fastened with silk to the side of the stem. That specimen and specimens of the three next following species have been determined by Prof. John B. Smith. 3. Eudryas grata (Fabr.).
A single pupa of this species wasfound in spring under the bark of a fallen button-bush stem, in a well-formed pupal cell, and was bred indoors, the handsome moth emerging in May. 4. &ofis j@si?on Rolt. )
A number of moths of these two species were 5. Plusia simplex Guen. J seen visiting the button-bush flowers for nectar at dusk.
6. flatysamia cecropia (Linn6).
A single egg cluster of this species was found on a button-bush leaf; and the larvae were hatched at home on July 2d. Four small larvae were found in another place on a single leaf a few days there- after.
HYMENOPTERA. 7. Dahlbohmia needhami Ashmead. This species shares the terminal pith cavities with MELANOMMA (No. I ante), but is much less common. The first specimens were found in winter, hibernating in their cells as pupae. Ima- gos were bred from these in May.
On June 26th I first saw the live wasp. It was a female, busily engaged in excavating the pith in the end of a broken stem. She would descend into the stem and after a few seconds back up to the surface and scatter some fine white pith chips, descend again instantly, and repeat. I marked the place and returned the next day to find her storing her completed nest tunnel with aphids - nymphs of RHOPALOSIPHUM sp ? and CHAITOPHORUS sp ? I captured her then, and examined the nest, and found one cell completed and closed, and a second one half stored.
The completed nest consists of four or five cells arranged end to end in the cavity, separated by partitions of fine pith chips, the thickness of the partition being about equal to the diameter of the cell. It appears that the first boring into the pith cavity is not of the full diameter of the cells, and that the chips made in finishing the walls of each cell, except the bottom one, are used to form the parti- tion separating it from the one below it. This species and the three named Hymenoptera next following have been determined by Dr. Wm. H. Ashmead.
8. Rhogas rikyi Cress. This big parasite of Acronycta oblinita has already



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2 6 PSYCHE [February
been mentioned under the account of that species. It is sufficiently common to serve as an efficient check upon the depredations of the larvae of that species. The
larvae are generally killed before they are grown. My bred specimens of the
parasite are labeled the 18th and the 21st of June. 9. An undescribed pteromalid, in the hands of Mr. Ashmead for description. Bred from larvae of Acronycta oblinita on the 5th of June. ro. An undescribed pteromalid, in the hands of Mr. Ashmead for description. Bred from pupae of Dahlbohmia needhami about the first of May. I Cot<-~opha~usflavoscu/eZlztm Ashmead.
Bred on the 5th and 6th of June in
great numbers from the male scales of Eulecamum armeniacum (No. 16 fost),
which they completely annihilated.
12. Chalcis annulata Fabr. Found on button-bush stems, but not further observed.
13. Sobla excava Norton. A pair of sawflies of this species was captured in July on a well isolated clump of button-bush. A number of sawfly larvae were
taken feeding on the same clump on the 27th of June, some of them apparently grown. - These larvae fed only on the young and tender leaves of the sterile shoots. They were hardly gregarious, and in their feeding, they ate but a few small holes in each leaf. Mr. A. D. MacGillivray determined the adults, and I have supposed that the larva belong to the same species. HEMIPTEKA. 14. Nenrocolfius nubilis Say. This species and the two next following were the only ones that appeared to be getting their living exclusively at the expense of the button-bush (Awonycta obZinita fed also on the leaves of the tall dock, Rumexaltissimiis, on the island). This rather prettily red-marked capsid was seen feeding about the buds
of the flowering shoots, nymphs only being present in May, and adults appearing about the middle of June. Determined by
Mr. 0. Heidemann.
15. Aphis cephalanthi Thos. A few colonies of this aphis were found on flowering shoots that overhung the water. Their bluish powdery covering gave to the shoots which they thickly covered a decidedly glaucous appearance. In the
colonies were found foraging the larvae of the anthomyiid (No. 22) and the cocci- nellid (No. 31) mentioned below.
16. EiiZeca?~/u-~i armeniacum Craw. This scale was very common during the winter of 1898-99 on shoots of the preceding season ; but it was excessively par- asitized with CoccophagusflavoscuteZZum, and I have not been able to find a specimen since that season. I placed hundreds of the male scales in a proper breeding cage in April, and hundreds of the parasites emerged, but not a single male scale insect.



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I 903 1 NEEDHAM;-BUTTON-HUSH INSECTS 2 7 I 7. Archasia galeata (Fabr.).
'
These species were all found upon
18. Atymna tnor/zata (Say).
1 the leaves and, presumably, feeding
19. Atymna pwci (Fitch).
there. Determined by Mr. 0. Heide-
20. Mepsius irror~atus (Say).
I mann.
2 I. ThamnoteU'ix clitellaria (Say). J
DJPTERA. 22. Leucopsis rzIg~icor7zis Egger. The larvae of this little fly were found June 27th in the midst of colonies of Aphis ce//tccZanthi, feeding voraciously on the plant lice. ~hough legless they could adhere to the convex surface of a bare stem or crawl about upon it. The living larvae are whitish, with a covering of bluish powder similar to that of the aphids, and there are on the middle of the back several darker M-marks, connected in the middle by an interrupted middorsal line. Some larvae were observed pupating in the midst of- the aphis colony, attach- ing the puparium to the stem. The puparium is at first yellowish, but later it turns reddish brown. From puparia collected here a number of imagos were bred, and these and the lollowing Diptera have been determined by Mr. D. W. Coquillet~. 23. EjIphragsna fascipennis Say.
Larvae of this species are vei-y common
under the bark and in the sap wood of watersoaked button-bush steins that lie upon the mud.
They are able to burrow through rather solid wood. Larvae of different sizes may be obtained almost any time. Transformation takes place mostly between the middle of May and the middle of June. A full account of this species with figures will appear in my forthcoming second report from the N. Y. entomological field station.
24. Odontomyia vertebrafa Say.
Observed on the flowers ; specimens now at hand bear the dates June 2 and 27.
The larvae and pupae are taken not uncom- monly floating on the surface of the pond. 2 j. Eristalis fmnsverszis Wed. 25tl1 June. 26. Erisz'aZis basfad Macq. 21st June.
r
1
1 All found feeding from
27. Hdopkå´IZz;~laetusLoeivz~stJune 1 1 the flon'ers, the first very 28. Ttojidia albistylum Macq. ~1st June. 1 conmonly, the last two
29. Ba-cchafuscipewi-is Say 31st July.
1
I rather rarely,
30. Chrysogasfw ziti& Wied, ~1st June.
COLEUPTERA. 31. Hippodamia 13-punctata (Limb). This coccinellid beetle was not uncommon on the button-bush clumps. Some larvae were observed ior- aging in the colonies of Aphis cepha/anthi; imagos were distributed promiscuously. This and the following Coleoptera, have been determined by Mr. Samuel Henshaw. 32. Telephoym carotinus Fabr.
This lampyrid beetle lives as a larva among the roots of the button-bush, and in the mat of moss that usually overspreads them; it transforms frequently under the bark of a dead stem, sometimes in the pith cavity of a short and thick stub when low enough to be kept sufficiently moist,



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2 8 1'5 YCHE [February
and the images are commonly taken on the foliage. The species, being carnivo-
rous, probably has no relation to the button-bush except through its relations with other insects.
Larvae were found among the roots and moss in early spring; pupae were found early in May, and one of these, with the larval skin still enveloping the apex of the abdomen, and serving for certain identification, was bred on the 18th of May. About the same time two- tencral images were found among the moss enwrapping the roots of a button-bush. I have previously recorded (Amer. nat., vol. 34, p. 371) that fully matured beetles are con~monly found eating the nectar flowing from weevil wounds at the base of the flowers of the blue flag. As the immature stages of this interesting beetle seem not to have been described hitherto, and as it is of somewhat different type from the larvae of other well-known Lampyridae, I deem it worth while to add descriptions herewith of larva and pupa.
LARVA : -Length 19 mm., abdomen 11.5 mm., width of head 1.5 mm., of abdomen 3 mm. Body nearly cylindric. dorsnm well rounded, widest across the base of the abdomen, and tnpering somewhat to both ends. Body segments of neai-ly equal length, those of the base of the abdomen being slightly shelter and wider, at the sides well rounded, with evident con- strictions between the segments.
Coloration obscure; liead dark chestnut. brown, paler about the base of antennae and mouth-parts.
Bod! olivaceous above, paler below; skin finely granulate and covered with a tine and dense pubescence which gives it a decidedly velvety appearance. Thorax with a pale median longitudinal line, and( )-marks at the sides of each segment with a large brownish, longitudinally placed, elliptical mark on each side midway between the ( )-marks and the median line. Abdominal segments each with avery narrow, pale, basal, median, longitudinal line or dash. eilher side of which ib a similar oblique, nearly transverse, dash; farther out on thu sides of the segments and much- farther backward are two broader dashes on either side. These are placed side by side and a sinuous, and continuous, paler longitudiual line extends between them. Farther down upon the sides is a less distinct, similar line in which the spiracles arc situated.
Headquadrzngular; longer than wide,slightly narrowed jnst before tlie hind margin,thinly clad with yellow, spinous hairs. Labral margin squarely trm-icatc, with a low broad quad- rangular tooth in the middle, isolated by a minute cleft of tlie margin either side of it. Mandi- bles long and strong, regularly arcuate and tapering to a 5trong point, with a simple strong tooth on the inner border at two thirds their length. Eyes bead-like projections "upon the lateral margin at the base of the Einlennae, Antennae two-jointed spinous, the second joint slightly longer than the first, obliquely truncated at the tip with the longer angle the internal one, and bearing on the end an external flabcllum, and a slightly longer, conical rudiment of a third joint which in length about equals the width of the zd segment. Basal segment of both labium and maxillae lying in one plane and densely covered below with a growth of spinous yellowish hairs, There are abundant hairs also on the ventral side of the mentnm of the labium, and on the apical margins of all the remaining segments of both maxillae and labium. The maxillary palpi are +-jointed, the length of the segments from the base



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19031 NEEDHAM: - BUTTON-BUSH INSECTS Y
outward being to each other as I : 3 : .3: 1.2, and their widths being as I : .8: .6: .A decreasing to apex, this last segment being conical. The lacinia of the maxilla is oblique at base and straight and conical in its distal three foul-lhs, this part being set off by a constriction on the inner side. The menlum of the labium is trapezoidal, widest in front, wl~ere occurs a slight notch on the median line. The basal segment of the labial palpus is cylindric and about as long as the mentutn; the 2d segment is a third as long' and half as wide at base and tapers to a point.
The legs of the three pairs are alike save for very slight dill'ei-ence in size; femora and tibiae are of equal lengtb coxae one third shurier, trochanters one half shorter, and tarsi two thirds shorter. The tarsus is I-jointed, including the claw, merely tapering into a straight, and at the last, slightlydecurved tip. It is beset about its base by 6-10 stiff approved spines, while tlw lee tliruiighout me sparsely clal will1 yelloil-ibh hairs. The 9th segment of the abdomen is one third narrower than the 8th and tlie 10th is one half the width of the 9th and is short. c?lindric, simple.
Pli$a:-Length 12 mm., :ihdoinen 8 mm., width of head 2 inm.. of abdomen 3 inm. Prothorax placed vertically at the front end of the body, Us disc nearly square, with square hind angles and rounded front angles.
Head bent under.
Antennae esscnti:;lly as in the
adult beetle, bnt shorter bent in F-shztped, the upper curve of the ? surronnding the knees of the first and second pairs of leg& and lyingiigains.t the sides of thethorax. The knees of the hind legs project dorsally from under the hind wings, the tarsi of all legs lie ncar togethcr with soles opposed on the median ventral line. The abdomen is depressed cylindric, fit its apex depressed conic, gradually terminating in a pair of straight soft flat spines about as long as the distance between their tips. The whole surface of the body is smooth. A broad, dark, dorsal band nearij covers the abdomen and there is :I line of dashes either side of it. The large spot of the prothorax of
the imago appears in the old pupa very distinctly, and also the paler markings about the bases of the antennae and there is a dark blotch upon the metathoracic scutum. Bred at Lakc Forest, Ill., 18th May, 1901. 33. Macrofsfwcell'us (Say) ?
A standing dead stem of button-bush was found to be infested with larvae, and was put in a breeding cage in the spring and this beetle emerged in the cage. Uniortunately, the gummed label on the vial in which I kept the specimen became loosencd and was lost, and with it all further data concerning this insect.
NEUROPTERA. 34. Sisyra z~mbrata Needham. While working in a button-bush
clump I one day accidentally injured a tree-frog that was sitting, perfectly concealed by its color, on one of the trunks: and having thus made it necessary to kill the frog, I examined its stomach, and there I found for the first time this species. The frog had eaten six of the spongilla flies. By a little careful searching I soon found a few specimens sitting on the button-bushes. I found also the larvae crawl- ing about on little knot-like growths of Spongilla /rag& attached to submerged twigs and trunks of the button-bush as well as to other solid supports of any sort. It is therefore a natural, though quite an incidental associate of the button-bush.



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3"
PSYCHE [February
35. Chauliodes rasiricornis Rambur.
Larvae of this species are found occa-
sionally under button-bush trunks that are lying in the edge of the water, and I found one pupa that had ensconced itself neatly in the pith cavity of a stub of large size that projected from the open water. This pupa I reared, the imago issuing on the 3 I st of May.
ACARINA.
36. An undetermined mite of very small size makesa felted gall on the leaves of the most vigorous shoots. The mites live on the under side of the leaf between the veins in the midst of the reddened hypertrophied plant hairs which fill the concavity that quickly develops. Frequently the gall becomes distinctly sacculate, rising to a considerable height from the upper side of the leaf, and
becoming almost a mantle gall. It is of irregular shape, with warty surface, and is reddish in color, or green, tinged with reddish. Besides the foregoing, there were at least four other species of insects that certainly belong to the button-bush population, but which I have been able neither to find out about, nor to name. These are a jassid whose nymphs were common, feeding on the leaves in June, but which I did not breed. A number of ja-ssid images might be swept from the foliage in midsummer but whether they were there by accident was uncertain; an undetermined coleopterous larva that 1 took to be one of the Oedemeridae which I found repeatedly under the bark of dead stems; and two species of ants undetermined that were taken often about the colonies of APHIS and EULECANIIJM.
The ecological relations of tlie members'of this assemblage of insects are not without interest.
A numbcr live in the dead stems only. Of these, four live in the pith cavities of br6ken stems: Lwo (nos. i and 7) in the dry tops, and two (in the pupal stage only, nos. 32 and 35) in the wet stubs. Five live under the bark, three (nos. I, 3 and 32) as pupae only, and two (nos. 23 and 33) feeding as well as transforming there; two of these live only in wet stems (nos. 23 and 32). Nine of our list (nos. 4, 5, 24-30) are merely flower visitors. Two feed on the green stems and these (nos. 15 and 16) are among the most important enemies of the Imtton- bush.
Ten are leaf feeders (nos. 2, 6, 13, 14, 17-21, and 36, the last being the only gall maker observed) and among these only one (no. 2) seemed of much importance to the plant. Of the three prime depredators, therefore, the moth larva (no. 2) and the scale insect (no. 16) have their internal parasites of the usual sort, and the aphid (no. 15) has its predatory larval dipterous (no. 32) and coleop- terous (no. 31) foes. Three aquatic insects of our list (nos. 24, 34, and 35) are



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natural associates of the button-bush, requiring similar habitat, but their relations with it are of the most tenuous sort. Among all the insects named only three, and these three, Hemiptera (nos. 14-16), appeared to be getting their living entirely at the expense of the button-bush, and of these three the first was not very common, and the other two were beset by most efficient enemies. THE HEMIPTERA DESCRIBED BY PHILIP REESE UHLER. I. BY SAMUhL HUNSHAW, CAMBRIDGE, MASS
1 Hemiptera of the North Pxific exploring expedition under Com'rs Rodgers and Ringgold. Proc. acacl. nat. sci. Phil., 1860, p. 221-231. 2 Homoptera of the North Pacific exploring expedition under Com'rs. Rodgers and Ringgold.
Proc. acad. nat. sci. Phil., 1861, p. 282- 284.
3
Descriptions of lour species of Hemiptera collected by the North-western boundary survey.
Proc. acad. nat. sci. Phil., 1861, p. 284-286. 4
Rectification 01 the paper upon the Hemiptera of the North Pacific expedition.
Proc. acad. nat. sci. Phil., 1861, p. 286-287. 5
Descriptions of a few new species of Hemiptera, and obscrvations upon some already described.
Proc. ent. soc. Phil., 1861, vol. I, p. 21-24. 6 Hemipterological contributions. -No. I. Proc. ent. soc. Phil., 1863, vol. 2, p. 155-162.
7 Hemipterological contributions.- No. 2. Proc. ent. sac. Phil., 1863, vol. 2, p. 361-366.