July, '08] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 297 



I have been unable to find any record of the insect having 

 been taken in Pennsylvania before, although Dr. Smith records 

 it from several neighboring states and says "It is quite prob- 

 able that the species will be found throughout the United States 

 wherever the food plant (Typha) occurs." 



The situation in which the larvae were found consists of a 

 series of shallow pools, caused by the removal of clay for the 

 use of a brickyard in operation nearby. These pools are bor- 

 dered with the cat-tail rushes upon which the caterpillars sub- 

 sist ; the total area of the rush patches combined was something 

 less than one acre in extent, but I am given to understand that 

 the swampy tract has been in existence for over twenty years. 

 Its elevation above sea level is almost precisely 400 feet, as 

 shown by the city engineer's levels. 



Usually not more than a single adult larva is found in a 

 stalk, but in a few instances more were found ; in one instance 

 two healthy pupae were found in one stem. The plants in 

 which the insects mature do not bear any fruit, as the injury 

 inflicted is a most serious one, the central shoot dies and turns 

 yellow and the infested plants can be singled out quite readily 

 by this sign toward the approach of the time of pupation. 



Fully 75 per cent, of the plants in the marsh seemed to be 

 infested, but some animal seems to have a special fondness for 

 the fat pupa, as more often than otherwise it had been extracted 

 through a hole broken in the side of the stem. In some cases 

 this seemed to be the work of a rodent, judging from the drop- 

 pings that were found about such places. Observations lead me 

 to believe that this species does not feed below the \vater line 

 in its burrows. In cases where the water had receded from the 

 base of the plant, the larva invariably descended to the very 

 crown. But I was unable to discover a single case in which 

 the insect went below the water line where water was actually 

 present. 



The moth is apparently not much attracted to light, as 

 was shown by the fact that although collections were made 

 almost nightly at a light not more than 100 yards from where 

 the moths were emerging, not a single specimen was taken in 



