40 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [\'ol. 9 



juries resulting from the work of Jalysus spinosus and, venturing a 

 guess, we would expect to find that at least a part of the injury is 

 really due to the work of some Berytid bug. During the past two 

 years this insect has worked widely through Missouri and in some 

 districts, where tomato-raising for canneries is of importance, has 

 occasioned serious loss. There are from three to four broods a season 

 in Missouri and the adults pass the winter hibernating beneath leaves 

 and other waste. The adults in feeding assume a most peculiar po- 

 sition of the beak which we have been unable to explain. The first 

 joint is carefully worked into the tissues, then the basal joint is bent 

 backward at an angle of nearly 45 degrees, the second extending hor- 

 izontally to join the two outer joints at a wide angle. Despite this 

 position which appears but poorly adapted for suction the insect 

 feeds this way for long periods. 



Sesia rileijana Dry. 

 Early in August, 1914, large numbers of the adults of this beautiful 

 little clear-winged moth were found on Solanum carolinense. Spec- 

 imens were sent in to the Division of Entomology at Washington for 

 determination, when Dr. Howard wrote that the life-history was un- 

 known. Hence in spring search for the larvae revealed them in the 

 stem of this weed and when found ^Nlay 24 they were in about the 

 third instar. The adults are slender-bodied, clear- winged moths, 

 with the front wings very slender and rather broadly margined 

 with fuliginous and with a red bar at the disk. Palpi and ventral 

 portions of thorax are yellow while the thorax above is shining black. 

 The abdomen is black with six narrow yellow transverse bands. Legs 

 yellow save at the knees where the}' are brownish. The larva is sub- 

 cylindric, sparsely pubescent, and rather similar though smaller than 

 that of the common peach tree borer, Sanninoidea exitiosa Say. It 

 bores in the central part of the stem, working downward to the roots 

 and passing down one of the main branches at about the time it ma- 

 tures, bores out of the root into the soil. The pupa is formed in the 

 soil, sometimes at a distance of three inches from the stem. The pupa 

 itself resembles that of Sanninoidea exitiosa but instead of being sur- 

 rounded by a gummy cocoon of chips and frass as with that insect, it 

 is enclosed in a slender silken tube from one and a half to over two 

 inches in length. The great mass of the moths emerge from the mid- 

 dle of August to about the middle of September. Our data as to win- 

 tering is as yet unsolved. For two years we have noted the mass 

 emergence in August and September as mentioned, yet this summer we 

 took scattered specimens of adults on June 30, July 1, 19, and 28. The 

 specimen taken July 19 was placed in a cage with a growing plant of the 



