248 FIEST A]S"NUAL KEPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The Cocoon. 

 The singular net-work cocoon constructed by the larva for its trans. 

 formations, resembling some of those made by the caterpillars of 

 moths, is shown in Fig. 74 at a, and at b in enlargement, t|!||| 

 nearly double its natural size. These peculiar open- 

 work cocoons are made, it is believed, by all the species 

 of the genus. They are composed of loose threads per- 

 mitting the larva or pupa to be seen through the meshes, 

 and, according to Westwood, they are attached to tlie 

 underside of various leaves.* Professor Popenoe, in his 

 List of Kansas Coleoptera,\ gives this account of the co- 

 coon of an allied species, Phytonomus eximius Lcc, 

 which is found on leaves of Rwnex BrUtannica : " The 

 pupal stage is passed in a cocoon spun by the larva, on 

 the leaf-surface, usually next to a rib. The cocoon is Fig- 74.-000000 



,, ,, ,. of the punctured 



formed of yellow-brown threads, loosely interwoven, so clover-leaf wee- 

 that the fabric resembles net-work. It is broad oval in Se^^andit^'en! 

 outline. The pupa within is very nervous, and twists ''^^g^'^ ^°^i^°^^^*^^ 



•^ -^ 1 reticulated stxuc- 



around rapidly when the leaf is touched." Phytonomus ^^re. (After Ri- 

 comptus (JSay) spins a similar cocoon. ^^'^ 



These net-work cocoons are not confined to the genus Phytonomiis, 

 for they are known to be made by Curculio pimpijiellcB, of Europe, and 

 also by Ciomis scroplndarm (Linn.), according to Westwood, occur- 

 ring in both Eurojie and America.J 



Not Previously Known as a Clover-insect. 

 In Europe, where the genus is more numerously represented than in 

 this country, two species, viz.: P. nigrirostris (Fabr.),§ and P. meles 

 var. trifoUi, are recorded by European authors as preying upon clover, 

 but no mention is made of P. punctattis as attacking that plant. Dr. 

 Hagen, as the result of an extended examination, informs me that he 

 finds it not mentioned by any writer as injurious, nor any thing re- 

 corded of its history or food-plant, and that certainly up to 1871 the 

 larva was unknown. In a list of known larva3 of Coleoptera published 

 by Mr. Eupertsberger, in 1879, among fifteen species of Hyjjera, un- 

 der which genus Phytonomus jninctatus was formerly arranged, the 



*Mr. J. A. Osborne has found the cocoons of P. {Hyperd) ruiiiicis as often on the upper 

 as on the lower side of the leaf {Entomologisf s Magazine, 1879, xvi, p. 16). 



't Transactions of the Kansas Academij of Science, v, 1877, pp. 21-40. 



$Westwood: Introduc. Mod. Classif. Insects, i, 1839, p. 343. Mr. Osborne, however, 

 states (loc. cit. p. 18), that all the cocoons of G. scrophularice seen by him were close and 

 membranous, thick and tough. They are sparsely covered in the middle region with raised 

 whitish "goose-skin" points, which appear to be produced by the subsequent filling up of 

 small openings left in the original making of the cocoon. 



§Occurs also, although rarely, in the United States, from Canada and Massachusetts west- 

 ward to Michigaa. (Riley.) 



