-136- 

 VARINA ORNATA Neum. 



BY ANNIE TRUMBULL SLOSSON. 



I took at Punta Gorcla, Fla. , a year ago, one male specimen of 

 this pretty species described in " Papilio" vol. iv, p. 94. In March 

 of the present year I captured several other males and three females. 

 I think the female of this species has never been described. My 

 specimens are uniforml)' larger than male, and much lighter in color. 

 Their antenuce are simple, otherwise they do not appear to differ 

 from the male type. Had I not killed these specimens in a cyanide 

 bottle before discovering their sex, I should have tried to secure 

 eggs, and learn the life-history of this interesting insect. I wonder 

 if Mr. Neumoegen has revised his opinion of the proper position 

 of V. ornata since he first described it. I do not pretend to be a 

 competent judge as to generic differences and such grave matters, 

 but I have a suspicion that after closer study of this moth its present 

 place, " between Par-asa and Phobctron,'" may be changed. 



NOTES ON ELAPHIDION. 



BY JOHN B. SMITH. 



Some observations made by me in the Spring of 18S9 on Ela- 

 phidion seem to add to what has been already published. In cutting 

 about among branches for Scolytids, I found several young Oaks 

 which had been killed by fire, how long since I could not say. 

 Breaking one, about one and a half inches in diameter close lo the 

 ground, I found it infested by longicorn borers. I laid in a supply 

 of sticks, representing in all cases' the main stem and carried them 

 home; splitting them open showed galleries under the bark and in 

 the wood, a few containing pupae, but most of them larvae. From 

 these issued, during the .Summer, Elaphidion villosioii, E. paral- 

 lebim and E. miicronatiun. I did not study the larvae, assuming 

 them identical, but one thing is certain: all made the same kind of 

 burrows, and these were partly under bark, and some wholly in the 

 wood. The burrows under bark equally contained pupae, and all 

 the larvae changed to imagines in the same year. A transverse sec- 

 tion often showed at the base of tree three and once four larval gal- 

 leries, one of these evidently extending under ground. I believe 

 the pruning habit to be by no means a universal rule, but that the 

 beetles will oviposit wherever a suitable nidus is found, be it trunk, 

 limb or twio-. 



