December, '11] CUSHMAN: hosts AND parasites OF BRUCHIDiE 503 



continued to emerge from one lot of pods of the previous season as 

 late as April 13 and from another until April 27. In both of these 

 lots B. compressicornis emerged for some time after June G. No 

 observations were made from that date until August 30, when the 

 cages were cleaned out and many dead Bruchus found. 



From the material collected at El Reno, Okla., infested by both 

 species of Bruchus, Mr. McMillan reared nineteen specimens of Heter- 

 ospilus prosopidis and seven specimens of an undetermined chalcid. 

 These parasites undoubtedly attack either species of Bruchus. 



Coenophanes n. sp. (probably a species of Heterospilus) is recorded 

 in Insect Life (loc. cit.) as reared from B. bisignatus. 



A few specimens of B. bisignatus emerged unexpectedly from the 

 material collected at Victoria, Texas, for breeding the parasites of B. 

 compressicornis. No parasites were, however, bred from this lot. 



Bruchus hibisci Olivier, Ent. IV, p. 21, No. 28, pi. 3, fig. 28a-b. 



This is the only species of the genus that we have found which does 

 not attack a leguminous plant. Throughout Louisiana, especially 

 in the low, swampy regions, it \i the most commonly collected bruchid. 

 The adults are found visiting a great variety of flowering plants. 

 During the blooming and fruiting season of Hibiscus, its host plant, 

 it is very abundant within the involucres. The writer has found 

 as many as twenty-five or thirty adults in the involucre of a single 

 bloom, and they may be reared in very large numbers from the infested 

 capsules or "bolls." In the "bolls" it is sometimes associated with 

 Conotrachelus fissunguis Lee. 



It is recorded in Insect Life, V, 165 as "bred from seeds of Hibiscus 

 moscheutos at Bluffton, S. C, and Washington, D. C; also from seed 

 of H. sp. (tnilitaris?) at St. Louis, Mo." The species found to be 

 attacked by it in the writer's experience is H. militaris. Among the 

 records in the Department of Agriculture is one referring to this species 

 as being bred from the capsules of AbutUon abutilon at Washington, 

 D. C, July 30, 1906, by F. H. Chittenden.^ 



Our notes on this species are based on rearings from three lots of 

 the pods of H. militaris. These were collected at Mitchener and 

 Newellton, La., and Eudora, Ark. From the Newellton lot the adults 

 continued to emerge until October 9 and from the Eudora lot until 

 October 14. The earliest record of emergence was in the Mitchener 

 lot, July 31. Unhke most of the members of this family the larva does 

 not seem to prepare an opening through the seed coat, from which 



' During the present summer (1911) the writer has found the adults and egg." of 

 B. hibisci abundant on Abutilon at Vienna, Va. The egg is white, about .5 mm. 

 long by about one thiid as wide, and oblong oval in shape. It is deposited among 

 the pubescence of the Abutilon capsule. As has been discovered with other species 

 of the genus, the newly hatched larva has long delicate legs, wliich are later lost. 



