BRIEF NOTES ON VARIOUS INSECTS. 



?DoLERus sp. — The saw-fly larva, noticed in my report to tlie 

 Eeg-ents for 188G {4:0th Bept. N. Y. St. Museum Nat. Hist., pp. 87-90), 

 as cutting off the heads of wheat in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 

 was again reported by Mr. J. E. Wittmer, of Hale, York county. Pa., 

 as having made its apj^earance, June 16, 1887, but at that time, in no 

 increase in number or injury over that of the preceding year. No 

 examples were obtained for further study. 



The same species, evidently, was the occasion of remark and discus- 

 sion, at the Annual Meeting of the New Jersey State Board of Agri- 

 culture, at Camden, in January of 1888. 



Mr. Denire stated, that the insect, the preceding 3'ear, about two or 

 three weeks before harvest, had cut off the heads of the wheat, about 

 half an inch below the head. In his own field, and in others in his 

 neighborhood, about five per cent of the crop had been thus destroyed. 



Mr. Nicholson remarked that a number of comj)laints of this injury 

 had been received from Monmouth county. The worm, in some cases, 

 had destroyed about twenty per cent of the crop, by cutting off the 

 straw an inch or two from the head, a short time before harvest, and 

 it was impossible to gather it with any machinery on the farm, for the 

 heads fell and were lost on the ground. {Fifteenth Annual Report of 

 the New Jersey State Board of Agriculture, 1888, page 164.) 



Danais Akchippus {Fahr.). — The larvae of this butterfly were observed 

 at Sageville (Lake Pleasant), Hamilton county, N. Y., July eighteenth, 

 on milkweed {Asclepias), in various degrees of development, from its 

 first stage (previovis to its first molt) to near its full groM'th. The 

 following memoranda were made of it: 



As observed in its first stage, in readiness for its first molt, July 

 twentieth, it is nearly one-fourth of an inch in length. The two black 

 horns on the second segment are subcylindrical, about one-fourth 

 the diameter of the body in length. The two black tubercles on 

 top of the eleventh segment are less than one-half so long. The 

 bands traversing the body are black on a white ground, on the middle 

 of each segment, with yellow between, over the incisures. The head 

 is shining black, with two brown lines on each side. 



