THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 173 



ON A LARVA OF MORDELLA. 



BY V. T. CHAMBERS, COVINGTON, KY. 



In previous numbers of the Can. Ent. (vols, ix, p. 232, and viii, p. 

 137) I have given an account of a singular larva found in thorns of 

 Gleditschia triacanthos or Honey Locust. I have never succeeded in 

 rearing the imago from the larvre found in the thorns, but the same larva 

 — or one that I have not been able to distinguish from it— lives also in 

 the pith of the " iron weed " ( Veronia) and also in that of the " hog 

 weed" or "horse weed,"' Ambrosia ti-ifida ; and in the pith of these 

 stems is also found a Lepidopterous larva which I have not been able to 

 rear to the imago state, but which does not seem to differ from that of 

 Laverfia gkditschceella found in the thorns. Both larvae, therefore, or 

 larvse not yet distinguished from them, inhabit the thorns of the Honey 

 Locust, the Iron Weed and the Horse Weed. I have bred the Lepidop- 

 terous larva from the thorns ; it is that of Laverna glediischceella Cham., 

 but I have not bred the ''curious larva" from them. I have bred the 

 " curious larva " from the Iron Weed, but not from the thorns on the 

 Ambrosia. It proves to be the larva of a beetle allied to Mordella, if it 

 does not, as I think it does, belong to that genus. I send a bred speci- 

 men herewith ; it is, I think, a common species. Please give me its name. 



From the fact that it feeds in the same stems with the Lavertice larvse, 

 I thought it probable that the Mordella larva fed upon that of the Laverna^ 

 or upon some of the other larvse found in the thorns of Gleditschia ; but 

 it is more probable that the fact simply is that the pith of these plants 

 affords food to all of the species. 



I have seen the Mordella larva eating its way through the pith, or 

 rather cutting its way with its mandibles, for I never saw it swallow any of 

 the pith, nor have I found any of it in the larval intestine. It may there- 

 fore be parasitic on the Laverna larva, in the sense that it eat$ the Laverna 

 where it meets it in the stem. But it must be capable of feeding and 

 growing for a long time without meeting the Lepidopterous larva, for it is 

 frequently found in stems and thorns in which no other larvse have been 

 seen. 



Besides the Laverna and Mordella larvse, many others also — of other 

 genera and orders — feed in the Gleditschia thorns, as I have already stated 

 in the papers before referred to. Thus in these thorns I have found a 



