58 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



apparently preferred food-plant, to flourish. In some places the larvae 

 were so plentiful as to overrun the burdocks and probably other weeds, 

 but in no instance was it found in Ifelianthus divaricatus which grew in 

 the infested localities or elsewhere. H. giganteus was not noticed at all. 



In due course, for it is not a late species, as is the seaboard form, a 

 series of the moths come forth and prove conclusively that we are dealing 

 with iiccophia, Grole, at last. Some variation is found to exist, and it 

 appears the types are well-developed specimens of the darkest form. The 

 larva is a vigorous one and possessed of a good appetite, which the rugged 

 food-plant allows to be satisfied. It enters the plant a few inches above 

 the ground level and works downward two or three inches below this line, 

 but in no instance does it get down to the tubers, which are much deeper. 

 Its work produces an elliptically elongate swelling, about twice the size of 

 the normal stem and from three to five inches long. The original aperture 

 of entrance is, after a while, given up for a larger one lower down, from 

 which the abundant castings are ejected. At maturity this opening is 

 enlarged that the larva may leave, for the pupal change does not occur in 

 the gallery. From their advanced condition at July 15th it was evident 

 that the larvu- must have emerged from the hibernated eggs in the last days 

 of May, as we found the brood well on in the penultimate stage. It is 

 characterized as follows : 



Head normal, well rounded, shining and of golden-russet colour, 

 mouth parts tipped with brown ; width, 2.4 mm. 



Body cylindrical, a little larger at the middle in this stage. The dorsal 

 line is broad and continuous ; the subdorsal equally pronounced, except 

 on the first four abdominal segments, where it is lost. The colour is a 

 pale, burnt-sienna ground, on which the dull yellowish-white stripes are 

 plainly shown. The shield on joint one is fully as wide as the head and 

 nearly covers the segment above. It is paler than the head, shining, of a 

 honey-yellow hue, edged laterally with black. The tubercles are small 

 and nearly of one size ; IV, the largest of the lateral ones, is the size of the 

 spiracle ; the latter shining black, the tubercles brownish-black. I and II 

 on joint eleven form the corners of a pronounced square, and are not con- 

 fluent. The anal and leg plates are normal and agree with the thoracic in 

 texture There is no symptom of the accessory tubercle IVa on joint ten. 

 Length, 40-43 mm. 



Maturity finds the larva a little more robust, the colour faded to a 

 soiled whitish translucence, with the lines lost or nearly so. The tubercles 



