THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 113 



May 4 in a plot of ground where onions had been grown the preceding 

 season. I placed several of them in one of my breeding cages, and by 

 the loth day of May all but one had pupated. The first flies issued May 

 2 2. One pupa worked itself about half way out of the dirt in the morning, 

 and while in this position the fly issued during the day. 



The first pupte found out of doors were taken May 9, and the earliest 

 date of capturing the flies was May 2 1 ; three days later several pairs were 

 observed united i}i coitu. 



For the determination of the above species, I am indebted to Dr. 

 Hagen, who writes me that he has compared my specimens with Loew's 

 types. . 



NOTES ON THE EARLY STAGES OF LIXUS MACER, LeCoiNte. 



BY D. W. COQUILLETT. 



On the 13th of July, 1881, I saw a female L. inacer busily engaged in 

 gnawing holes in the stem of a green Helianthus grosse-serratus (Wild 

 Sunflower). There were several holes in the stem of this plant, and 

 in each I found one or two eggs, of an elliptic-ovoid form, polished pale 

 yellow, and measuring about two and one-fourth mm. in length. In the 

 stems of other similar weeds, which grew near to this one, I found several 

 recently hatched larvse. I examined the stems of this same kind of weed 

 at intervals throughout the summer season, and found the larvae in differ- 

 ent stages of their growth, sometimes two or three in the same plant. 

 Late in October I noticed that many of these weeds had been broken off, 

 and the pieces — from one and a half to three feet in length — were lying 

 about upon the ground. These pieces contained a larva — evidently of 

 the above species — and at one end, and occasionally at each end, the pith 

 and woody part had been gnawed away, leaving nothing but the bark, 

 and this had evidently been broken off by the wind. I examined a few of 

 these pieces on the 25th of the following April, and found nothing but 

 larvae ; another examination was made on the 12th of the following month, 

 when nothing but larvae were found, but all were dead. 



From these observations it would seem that the eggs are deposited 

 about mid-summer, the larvae hatch out in a few days, reach their full 

 growth in three or four months, and hibernate in their burrows as detailed 

 above, assume the pupa form early in the following summer, and are 

 changed to beetles shortly afterward, thus completing their transformations 

 inside of a year. 



