194 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Dung-bearing weevil larvae were again found on September 

 1 and 14, 1912, at Hyattsville, Md. In this case the food-plant 

 was Ludwigia alternifolia L., a plant closely related to (Enothera. 

 The beetles reared from these larvae were determined by Mr. W. D. 

 Pierce as Perigaster obscurus. The larvae usually occurred singly 

 on a leaf and but a small number on the same plant. They were 

 mostly 011 the under side of the leaves, though occassional ones 

 occurred on the upper side. They ate elongate holes into the 

 leaves, or pieces out of their sides. Most specimens of the food- 

 plant, scattered over the open, wet gravelly ground, showed the 

 work of the larvae. On September first the larvae were abundant 

 and of various sizes, but two weeks later larvae could only be 

 found on three plants and these were all full-grown or nearly so. 



As in the case of Ccelogaster lituratus, the larvae were entirely 

 covered dorsally with their own excrement imbedded in a secre- 

 tion from the anus. The secretion flows down the sides and 

 gives the entire larva, excrement included, a shining appearance. 

 As in Ccelogaster, the larva is short and stout, high medially, 

 the body-segments forming a series of strongly convex ridges 

 which are tuberculately produced at the sides; from these tuber- 

 cles the spiracles project like minute papillae. The color of the 

 body of the larva is dull creamy yellow, its head pale ferruginous. 

 The excrement is nearly black and the secretion brownish yellow, 

 the latter probably being stained by the excrement. The excre- 

 ment is carried forward from the anus by peristaltic movements 

 of the body segments, which are particularly violent posteriorly. 

 The result is that the excrement accumulates on the anterior por- 

 tion of the larva and there overhangs the head, as well as extend- 

 ing down the sides. 



When about to pupate the larva gets rid of its covering and 

 shapes it into a cocoon. At this time the larva is opaque bright 

 yellow; the pupa is of the same color. Larvae kept in close 

 confinement in a tin box did not always succeed in shaping a 

 cocoon. When they came in contact at this time the secretion 

 caused them to stick together and they appeared unable to free 

 themselves. Of the larvae brought home September first, a 

 number had transformed to beetles by September 8 and the 

 remainder issued within a few days after. The larvae probably 

 normally pupate on the ground. No trace of the pups? could 

 be found in nature, except a single cocoon upon the upper side of 

 a leaf of the food-plant near the ground. This plant stood in 

 a very wet place, where there must have been water two or three 

 days earlier. 



