On Certain Grass-Eating Insects. 6i 



DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES.^ 



I. The YeIvI^ow Crambus. 



Crambus luteolellus. 



PLATES I., v., XIII., Fig. I. 



Thi| species may be recognized by its uniform yellow color and 

 by its small size. This insect is confined to low wet lands. The 

 moths fly about dusk during the latter part of June and July. 

 Females were very hard to find and those taken laid but few eggs, 

 which failed to hatch. 



Egg. — A light rufous color when first laid. Form elliptical oval ; size .42 

 by .3 mm. There are about fourteen prominent longitudinal ribs and nu- 

 merous smaller transverse ridges. 



2. The Sooty Crambus. 



Cramhis caliginoselhis. 



PLATES I., v., XII., XIII., FIG. 2. 



This species is a small dark colored moth with quite obscure 

 markings. The adults fly in the early evening during the latter 

 part of July and the first week of August. Very few of the moths 

 are attracted to light. In the six trap-lanterns run through the 

 season of 1889 only four males were taken, yet the species is quite 

 common in Ithaca. Like the Yellow Crambus, this species is 

 mostly confined to low wet lands. This insect appears to be more 

 prolific than the Yellow Crambus ; one female laid two hundred 

 and seventy-five eggs in a vial, and this is probably below the 

 average, t When first laid the eggs are a creamy white. They 

 gradually turn to an orange rufous color, and hatch in from five 

 to eight days. 



*For a discussion of the more technical characteristics, and of those 

 species the habits of which were not observed, see concluding part of this 

 paper, treating of the Affinities of the Species. 



fit is only occasionally that a female is taken in the field before she has 

 laid any eggs. As a rule, I give the highest number of eggs I have observed 

 any one female of a species to lay and then give the probable average based 

 upon observations of other females of the same and other species. The 

 numbers of eggs laid by a single female was determined by actual count and 

 not by estimates. 



