106 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
from the Uniola. Contrary to the habits shown by this insect in our more 
northern cultivated fields, the Chinch Bug is to be found on Uniola only 
on the upper portion of the plant, the imagos and larger specimens among 
the ears, the younger between the upper blades. The reason for this habit 
is, in my opinion, easily explained by the very woody and tough nature 
of the lower part of this storm-beaten plant, and further by the fact that 
the constantly drifting sand would make life rather uncomfortable for the 
Chinch Bug close to the ground. Finally, I would state that in all my 
travels in central and southern Florida I do not remember having found 
the Chinch Bug in considerable number in the interior of the country; in 
fact, I never found a single specimen in the valley of the St. John's River. 
A very small species of Phlwothrips occurred at the base of the younger 
blades, but is hardly numerous enough to affect the plant in any way. 
Of special interest to me among the insects just enumerated was Mor- 
dellistena splendens, which I had never found before, and its constant oc- 
currence on Uniola suggested to me the probability of finding its earlier 
stages within the stem of' the plant. Upon cutting open the dead and 
dying plants I was soon rewarded with finding the insect in the larva, 
pupa, and imago states. Most of the specimens were imagos ready to 
issue from the stems, many were still in the pupa stage, while the larvae 
were already tolerably scarce. From the numerous specimens thus found 
by me the natural history of Mordellistena splendens may be summed up 
as follows : The female beetle inserts a single egg in the stem just beneath 
the ear, and the young larva commences to hollow out the interior of the 
stem (or rather to widen the naturally hollow inside), making its way 
downward. The duration of the larval state is unknown to me, but when 
full-grown the larva has hollowed out a distance of from one and a half to 
two feet. The stem of the plant increases in width downwards, and the 
larva, when it has arrived at the lower end of its burrow, is thus enabled 
to turn around. It then reascends within the stem until it has reached the 
place where the diameter of the hollowed interior is just large enough to 
prevent the larva or pupa from sliding downwards. Here it changes to 
pupa, but before doing so it gnaws a round hole in the side wall until only 
the thin outer skin is left. The change to pupa then takes place, and the 
perfect insect, after casting the pupa skin, finds itself with its head just 
opposite the nearly completed opening. It breaks, or rather eats its way 
through the outer skin and escapes. I cannot tell whether there are two 
or more annual generations in this species, but it appears that the plant 
is killed by the working of the larva. Of parasites, I failed to discover 
any; but in some of the plants, evidently hollowed out by the Mordellis- 
tena larva, I found a solitary ant which has kindly been determined by Mr. 
Pergande as Colobopsis impressa. Wherever the stem was inhabited by the 
ant I failed to find any trace of the Mordellistena larva; nor was there the 
usual exit hole which would prove that the larva had passed through its 
transformation and that the ant had entered the stem through the exit 
hole of the beetle. I presume, therefore, that the ant enters the stem 
from the root and eats the larva. 
