THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 201 



Description of Stages. 



The egg. — The egg was not observed though egg-sheljs were found in the 

 place of oviposition. 



The larva. — The mature larva is dirty white to almost pure 

 white in colpur. The head is rather strongly chitinized, and the prothorax 

 possesses a narrow, chitinized area on the dorsal surface. The rest of the 

 larva is soft and possesses no defensive structures, even setie of all kinds being 

 absent. The head is small, rounded, annost sphericai in shape, and about 

 one-half as wide as the thorax. Two black ocelli are present on each side of 

 the head just above the mandiblps. The body of the mature Ijarva is strongly 

 curved dorsally, much wrinkb^d by transverse depressions, and tapers slightly 

 in both directions. The ventral surface is flattened. Legs are absent. The 

 farva measures 4 mm. in length. 



The pupa. — The pupa is broad, short and somewhat flattened. 

 It is at first pure white, later darkening, and before transforming assumes the 

 dark colours of the beetles. The wing-pads lie curved under the body, passing 

 between the second and third pair of l^egs. The prothorax Is strongly tubercu^ate, 

 and from the tubercules arise long, chitinized setae, about 14 in all. Similar 

 seta? arise from the distal lateral ends of the femora, the head and beak. These 

 long setie prevent the soft body of the pupa from coming in contact with the 

 pupal cell. The pupa measures 2.5 mm. in Jjength by 2 mm. in extreme breadth. 



The beetle. — The beetle is a rather pretty snout beetl/e, and is 

 described by Blatchley and Leng in their "Rhyncophora of North-eastern 

 America" as follows: — "Broadly oval. Dark piceous, clothed with brown 

 scales having a brassy tinge and variegated with pale ones, the latter condensed 

 on the sides and on basai half of dorsai channel of thorax, and forming on the 

 eljytra a small post-scutellar and numerous smaller subquadrate spots; antennae 

 and legs reddish-brown. Beak scarcely longer than head, widened toward apex, 

 densely and finely punctate. Thorax nearly twice as wide at base as long, 

 dorsal, channel entire, widening into a fovea in front; lateral tubercles acute, 

 disc finely and closely punctured. Elytra one-fourth wider at base than thorax, 

 sides broadW rounded, striae punctured; intervals feebly convex, the alternate 

 ones slightly more so. Length 2.3-2.5 mm." 



THE SYNONYMY OF HELICE CHAMBERS AND 

 THEISOA CHAMBERS. (MICROLEPIDOPTERA). 



BY ANNETTE F. BRAUN, CINCINNATI, O. 



The description of the venation of Theisoa by Chambers in his character- 

 ization of that genus, and his figure in the Journal of the Cincinnati Society oi 

 Natural History were both made from male specimens, as an examination of 

 material of l30th sexes shows. Singularly enough, subsequent studies on this 

 genus have also been confined to males, as must be concluded from the published 

 notes by Mr. Busck (cf. Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., XI, 94, 1909), where, in estab- 

 lishing the synonymy of Cacelice and Theisoa, he refers to the figure of the 

 "■characteristic venation" of this genus, as shown in Cacelice permolestella Busck. 

 Observations made by the writer on Theisoa constrictella, T. permolestella and 

 Helice pallidochrella, and presented below reopen the interesting question of 



August, 1919 



