396 ANNUAL BEPORT Of NEW- YORK 



GRAPB. LEAVES. 



acters with the Caliscelis was found at Mount Pleasant in Ohio, by Mr. Foster, 

 the comrade of Mr. Doubledaj, in his entomological tour in this country. It 

 has the head prolonged forwards and downwards in a protuberance which 

 gives it considerable resemblance to a weevil of the genus Bruchus. It was 

 hence described under the generic name Bruchomorpha by Mr. Newman, the 

 species being named oculata. Six additional species belonging to this genus 

 are now known to me. These have all been discovered by Mr. Robertson west 

 of Arkansas, and some of the same insects I have gathered in Illinois and have 

 received from correspondents there. They occur in grass and subsist on its 

 juices. Much the most common species I name: 



114. Bruchomorpha dorsata. This is black and shining, with a pale yellow 

 stripe along the middle of its back from the front to the tip, its legs being also 

 pale yellow with a dusky stripe on the thighs. Length 0.16. Mr. Robertson 

 has discovered individuals having the wing covers and wings full}'- developed, 

 showing that it is a pupa which is described by Mr. Newman. Or it may be as 

 Mr. Westwood suggests in a letter to me, that these insects, like some of the 

 NepidcB, and other species belonging to this order, attain to puberty and perish 

 without acquiring wings, whilst in other individuals of the same species the 

 wings become fully developed. An individual which I captured in Illinois in 

 October, I preserved alive in a vial more than a month, supplying it frequently 

 with fresh grass. During that time its rudimentary wing covers did not 

 appear to make any advance in size. And at so late a period in the season we 

 should expect it to be grown to the full dimensions which it is its ordinary 

 habit to attain. These facts render it highly probable that Mr. Westvvood's 

 supposition is correct. But be this as it may, those individuals whose wings 

 are rudimentary will always be the specimens found in cabinets and from 

 which the species will be chiefly studied, since they are so much more readily 

 captured and show the same colors and marks which belong to the full winged 

 individuals. Mr. Robertson informs me these insects are very shy and timid, 

 and difficult to obtain; they leap with surprising agility, throwing themselves 

 some eighteen inches at a single bound; and like other insects, when their 

 wings are fully grown they become still more spry and active. Hence speci- 

 mens having the wings perfect will always be comparatively rare in collections. 



115. Naso Robertsonii. Closely related to ^ruc^OTWorp^a is another insect 

 in which the protuberance of the head instead of being compressed is cylin- 

 drical and abruptly enlarged at its apex into a smooth polished black knob of 

 a spherical form, thus resembling a species of Bruchus with a drop of liquid 

 pitch adhering in a globule to the end of its beak. I hence name the genus 

 from the Latin, naso, having a great nose. This insect is of a dull pale yellow 

 color, with an elevated line along the middle, its whole length, on each side of 

 which the head and thorax have numerous coarse black punctures symme- 

 trically arranged in rows, and there are two oblong black spots above, upon 

 the beak, two round ones between the eyes and two smaller ones upon the 

 scutel. The segments of the abdomen are occupied with little short black fur- 

 rows running lengthwise. The wing covers are rudimentary, covering the 



