290 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



C)-yptus al/w/iotatns, O K. 



Limneria Gtiignardi has already been spoken of in referring to the 

 types in Mr. Harrington's collection. 



Bassus dorsalis 5 = Hemiteles $ . — This is the true type and not 

 the specimen in the Provancher collection referred to the genus Plectiscus. 



Ephialtes variatipes is the $ of Ephialtes macer, Cress. 



SYSTEMATIC VALUE OF THE LARVA OF SPERMOPHAGUS. 



BY WM. HAMPTON PATTON, HARTFORD, CONN. 



The seeds of Gleditschia ti-iacaiitJms frequently show a narrow scar 

 upon the surface. Rarely two of these scars are found upon the same 

 seed. These scars are about one-eighth of an inch long ; and indicate 

 the presence of Spermophagus gleditschice, a Bruchid beetle, of a mottled, 

 tawny appearance, frequently bred from these seeds in the spring. The 

 grub remains in the seed over winter, changes to pupa in the spring and 

 soon emerges, as a perfect beetle, through a rounded hole in the side of 

 the bean-seed. 



The larva, observed by me in the middle of December, is an incurved 

 Chrysomelaform grub, provided with three pairs of legs, as well developed 

 as those of the larva of Eiipsalis and Anthribus. The thoracic segments 

 are the thickest and the body tapers towards the apex. The head is 

 partly sunken in the first segment. Along the sides the segments are 

 slightly protuberant, and in other particulars an analogy to the larvse of 

 the typical Rhynchophora is shown ; but the presence of thoracic legs 

 proves the insect to belong to a different family of beetles. In the young 

 larva the legs are probably long as in that of Bruchus. Mr. H. F. 

 Wickham, in a paper published in 1894, describes the larva of Sper?no- 

 phagus. 



Prof. J. O. Westwood, in Vol. I. of his " Introduction," states that the 

 larva of Bruchus has minute legs. The larva of Bruchus fabce, Riley, 

 has been figured by Dr. Packard (Am. Nat., Sept., '73, p. 537, fig. 141) 

 as a footless grub with a minute head. The larva of Spermophagus shows 

 this to be an error, the head being of considerable size, and there 

 being six legs. The mandibles were evidently mistaken for the head 

 by Dr. Packard ; and the head mistaken for the first segment. Mr. F. A. 

 Marlatt (2nd Rep. Kansas Ex. Sta., p. 210) says the larva of Bruchus 

 obsoletus, Say, is footless ; but his figures, 2 and 3, on plate IX., give a 

 better representation and show the legs. 



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