250 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
In the discussion of this communication Mr. Ulke stated that 
he had found Sitones hispidulus in August of this year, at Pen 
Mar, Pa., and further, that this species was certainly not present 
in Washington last year, for he had repeatedly and industriously 
collected, without taking a single specimen, during last summer, 
on the lawns and clover fields where it was so abundant this year. 
Mr. Linell said that years ago he found the species abundantly 
on the beach at Coney Island, New York. 
As a further illustration of the sudden appearance of insects in 
new localities, Mr. Schwarz mentioned that Sphinx catalpce was 
this season, for the first time, excessively abundant in the District 
of Columbia, many trees within the city, but more especially along 
the Tennallytown road, being utterly denuded by the larvae. Mr. 
Schoenborn had informed him that the moth had been first observed 
here some 4 or 5 years ago at the electric light, and that a few 
larvae had been found every year since that time. 
Mr. Ulke, in the same connection, commented on the complete 
disappearance of Doryphora juncta, formerly a common species 
here, after the western species (D. \Q-lineata) became abundant 
about Washington. 
Mr. Schwarz read the following note : 
AN INTERESTING FOOD-PLANT OF PIKRIS RAP^E.*. In the latter part 
of July of the present year I had occasion to visit several points of the 
Atlantic coast in Virginia and New Jersey. The most common mari- 
time plant all along this sandy coast is Cakile americana, of the family 
Crucifer(p. At Virginia Beach, Va., and Cape May, N. J., I was sur- 
prised to find the larva of the notorious Pieris rapes feeding on this 
plant. Hundreds of specimens could have been collected within very short 
time. They were, however, not evenly distributed, but infested clusters of 
plants in different places, and occurred often where the plants were most 
exposed to the spray of the ocean. The larvae were of all sizes, and eggs 
and pupae were also found. For some reason or another no specimens 
were seen at Anglesea (a little north of Cape May), but I presume that the 
very low coast at that locality, where the maritime plants are often cov- 
ered by the high tides, is the reason that the plants are not palatable to 
the insect. 
There is an interesting question connected with this food-plant of 
*This note was read before I had an opportunity of seeing part 8 of 
Scudder's great work on Butterflies, where Cakile. americana is mentioned 
among the food-plants of Pieris rapte on the authority of Dr. John Ham- 
ilton. 
