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Psyche 6:30, 1891.

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PSYCHE. [February 1891.
The above is the earliest notice of D.
12-'f)unctata as a corn insect of import- ance which I have seen. Unfortunately
the writer does not state whether his
conclusion as to the author of the injury was the result of inference, or was.ar-
rived at by carrying the larvae through
their transformations. From the fact
that he had not found pupae up to the
time of writing, it is proper to assume
that the transformations were not ob-
served. As a possible clue to one of the original food-plants of the larva atten- tion is directed to the fact that he found the beetles abundant on an Aster
growing on cultivated ground. (From
its yellow color the plant would appear
to belong to some other genus.) If, as is not unlikely from an observation made
by Prof. Lugger and reported farther
on, the planis observed by Mr. Webster
are attacked by the larvae, the fact
may have an important economic
bearing.
During the years 1889 and 1890 the
injury from larvae to corn attracted at- tention over a wide area of country. To
my knowledge it has been witnessed in
Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louis-
iana, Arkansas, Kentucky, Illinois,
Indiana and Ohio.
My own observations began July 15,
1889, and have continued, as other work
permitted, to the present time. A brief
notice of the insect, its habits and stages, was printed in the Louisville Home and
Farm, Sep. I, 1889, and in November
of the same year was followed by a more
elaborate account of the transformations and descriptions of the stages, presented before a meeting of the Association of
official economic entomologists at Wash- ington. (See Insect life, v. 2, 179.)
The latter paper is embodied in what
follows, with the addition of observa-
tions made during the winter of 1889-
go, and the spring of 1890.
(To be continued.)
THE PARTIAL PREPARATORY STAGES OF HETEROPACHA RILEYANA HARVEY.
BY G. H. FRENCH, CAKBONDALE, ILL.
In 1887 I found larvae of this species
reddish brownwith an indistinctdorsal stripe feeding on the honey locust in
two
of a more distinct red, a stigmata1 blackish stages of their growth.
the time I
stripe ; head black, with a longitudinal fulvous line each side of the middle and a transverse was feecling q'lite a number
line of the same about the middle of the larvae and did not make so full notes of front.
these as could be desired, but what I
h*
last stage:ÌÔLengt at. moult -60
did make are as follows : inch. Shape as in the preceding. Brownish Length, .45 'inch.
The body flattened be- red on the dorsum, but joints 8 and 9 gray on neath. the back rounded, head small, a fringe the sides leavingonly a narrow dorsal brown- of white hairs on each side ofthe body. Color ish red stripe; joint 6 gray but less distinct, Psit-he 6 030-11 (pre-1903). hfp //psyche aitclub orgWfrOO-IO htd



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February 1891.1
PSYCHE.
the whole side gray tinged and the borders of the dorsal stripe of clear color outlined by gray touches; a dorsal line of clearer color indicated on the anterior joints ; between joints 3 and 4 and between 4 and 5 on the dorsutn a yellow transverse stripe that is hid when the larva is at rest; the head is less distinctly marked than at the other stage; the lateral fringe pink tinted. The dorsal stripe is more of a distinct red than the gen- eral ground color.
An interesting parasite was bred in
this stage from one of these larvae, but at the time of writing it is misplaced
so that I can not now say what it is. Its manner of pupation was as follows :
When ready to spin its cocoon it burst
open the under side of the host so that
the skin of the dead H-eteropacha larva
formed a cover for the upper side of the cocoon. The ends of the dead larva
were shrunken, but the middle where
used as a cover for the cocoon was three times as broad across as the living larva had been. The pupal period of the para-
site was 8 days, from May 20 to May 28.
Last stage-Length, 1.05 inches. Striped
with 7 yellow stripes, a dorsal, subdorsal, suprastigmatal, and substigmatal, the first two quite dark almost orange,
the other two
paler and much narrower. The space be-
tween the dorsal and subdorsal black; a white patch between the joints breaks the subdorsal stripe and extends almost to the dorsal. Sides gray. Venter pale yellow, dull, a black patch to each joint. Head black, a short transverse buff streak in front; top of joint 2 black; short hair all over the body but not enough to very much obscure the colors, the hair on the upper part of the body mostly black but that along the sides above the legs gray.
The pupal period of the moth was 15
days, from May 22 to June 6. This
was the period of the first one that
pupated. Several others were raised
but their periods were not noted. They
continued to hatch to July 17, some
being in the larva state when the first
one emerged as an imago.
SMERINTHUS ASTYLUS.-A brood of twen-
ty-four raised this past season, showed some variations from those of last year.
Eggs laid July 29th and 30th.
Hatched---Aug. 8th.
1st moult-Aug 16th.
2nd moult-Aug. 22d.
3rd moult-Aug. 29th.
4th moult-Sept. 5th.
Most stopped eating Sept. 14th, and pupa- ted Sept. 18th to soth, varying much in
length of time required for this change. All these periods were shorter in 1890 than in 1889, except that between 2nd and 3rd
moults.
But three of the larvae kept on
feeding till Oct. 15th-one dying just before that date.
There was much greater variation
in color in this brood.
Twenty were much
more marked with red than those of last year, while four had no red, even on the caudal horn! Three of these four were the three which continued feeding after the others had pupated. Every one lost the 'mbifid tip" of the caudal horn so that, in the last stage, no one could imagine that it had ever been
bifid.
Ida M. Eliot, Caroline G. Soule.
PROTHORACIC WINGS.-M. Charles Brongn-
iart of Paris has just published in the Bul- letin of the Socigte philomathique two plates representing three insects, differing consid- erably in structure, found in the rich carbon- iferous beds of Comn~entry, France, two of which show, besides fully developed meso-



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