December, '11] CUSHMAN: HOSTS AND PARASITES OF BRUCHID^ 495 



of infested material were collected and large numbers of the insect 

 and its parasites reared. 



Its breeding habit was first found by the author on April 22, 1907, 

 at Victoria, Texas, when a few of the previous season's pods of the 

 huisache (Vachellia farnesiana), were found infested by it.^ At this 

 time the new crop of pods, which were still soft and green, were not 

 infested. The first of the brood in the new pods was reared June 

 17, 1907, from material collected June 13, at Victoria. A few individ- 

 uals had already emerged when the collection was made. The pods 

 are first attacked at about the time when they begin to turn dark, 

 and the species is a continuous breeder, carrying on its reproduction, 

 even in the confinement of the breeding cages, as long as there is 

 suitable food. In the field this continues until the new crop of pods 

 has reached the proper stage for infestation. 



The egg, which is deposited on the surface of the pod, is oblong 

 oval in shape, .75 mm. long and about half as wide. It is covered 

 with a thin varnish-like substance, which spreads out somewhat beyond 

 the boundary of the egg and fastens it securely to the pod. The 

 larva emerges from the side attached to the pod and burrows in to 

 the seed. 



In one large lot of huisache pods this species was accompanied by 

 B. amicus Horn. 



What proved to be the immature stages of a small variety of B. 

 sallcei, as determined by Mr. Charles Schaeffer, were found April 19, 

 1907, by the author at Corpus Christi, Texas, in the pods of the black 

 chapparal, Acacia amentacea. It was associated on this host plant 

 with Apion suhornatum, the latter species feeding on the substance 

 of the pod and not in the seeds, as is the habit of the Bruchus, it is very 

 unlikely that these pods produce more than one generation of the 

 Bruchus, as they split open when ripe and scatter their seeds, while 

 the huisache pod is indehiscent. 



Six full-grown larvae of this small form were isolated in small vials 

 on May 15, 1907. On May 22 four had cast the pupal skin, three 

 having already emerged and the other being still soft. This gives 

 a maximum pupal period of eight days. 



A single specimen of B. sallcei was found by Mr. J. D. Mitchell in 

 a seed of Gleditsia triacanthos near Victoria, Texas, on October 9, 1907, 

 its presence there being probably due to the fact that its normal food- 

 plant, huisache, produced almost no fruit during that season in the 

 neighborhood. 



• Pierce (Journ. Econ. Ent., I, p. 391) has mentioned this species as "Laria sp. in 

 Vachellia," basing his record on the rearings at the Boll Weevil Laboratory. 



