322 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



biologic material, viz., 3 larvae, 3 pupae, and 2 bred adults, the 

 dorsal tubercles are quite distinct on the first six abdominal joints. 

 The larva was taken in the stems of Uniola paniculata by Mr. 

 Schwarz at Lake Worth, Fla., in June, 1887, and he has referred 

 to it in his paper in our Proceedings (Vol. I, No. 2, pp. 106-7) 

 on insects found on Uniola paniculata in southeastern Florida, 

 without particularly referring to the tubercles, and under the name 

 M. splendens. Mr. Schwarz tells me that there can be no doubt 

 as to its phytophagic habit. 



Ferris has remarked that the larvae with arnbulatorial tubercles 

 preferably inhabit the stems of such annual plants as are hollow, 

 as for instance grasses, and further that they always live singly, 

 in contradistinction to the larvae without such tubercles, which 

 live always in company and affect more pithy plants without 

 natural channels, and do not hollow out long open galleries. This 

 is a perfectly legitimate inference, as these tubercles facilitate 

 climbing' in hollow stems and permit the larva to rapidly move 

 about and ascend or descend in the burrows ; but I suspect that 

 another deduction is justifiable from the facts, namely, that the 

 tubercles will be found most strongly developed in Mordellistena 

 larvae which are essentially carnivorous and which, as a con 

 sequence, do not make burrows themselves, but are well-fitted 

 for using the burrows made by their victim and of thus moving 

 freely about in them. 



In general characteristics the larva of Mordellistena resembles 

 somewhat that of Mordella. The body is, however, more curved, 

 the thoracic legs longer, and the anal spinose tip more slender and 

 less developed, so that the Mordella larva makes up for its lack 

 of dorsal tubercles by the much stouter anal segment and the 

 stouter spines connected with it. I have figured the early stages 

 of Mordella 8-punctata in Le Baron's 4th Report on the Noxious 

 and Beneficial Insects of Illinois, Figure 50, and I exhibit the 

 original specimens of this species, and also the larva and pupa of 

 Mordella inflammata, reared by Mr. Hubbard in Florida, and 

 taken from rotten oak logs. In the pupa of Mordellistena the 

 dorsal tubercles of the larva on the 3d, 4th, 5th, and 6th abdomi 

 nal joints persist, and are, in fact, more strongly hirsute at tip, the 

 development increasing from the 3d to the 6th, and in the pupa 

 of Mordella there are some similar but less marked hirsute lateral 

 tubercles. 



I also exhibit old drawings (Fig. 23) taken from my early 

 notes, made in 1867, of the larva and pupa of Oberea schaumii 

 (my No. 118) reared, with a transcription from the notes show 

 ing that the larva was found in May and June, 1867, in the branches 

 of small cottonwoods in North Chicago. The figures in the notes 

 indicate the very deep insections and the tubercular or ridged ap 

 pearance of the segments, especially on the dorsum. This char- 



