475 



diate vicinity of a building- in wliieli the adults were cnieriiing 

 in lai-o-c numbers from the stored pigeon peas and cowpeas but 

 only B. chinensis emerged fi'om the peas. In Korth America it 

 readily attacks its hosts in the field but in India this tendency 

 to limit its attacks to stored seeds has been noted. 



The species is recorded as breeding in cowpeas and ])eas. 

 I have bred it experimentally from l^liaseolus liuuihis. I', nrlir- 

 rilatus. P. aureus,. P. acutifoUus, Vigna ckinensu, Vigna lutea, 

 Cajanus indicus, Dolichos lahlah, D. siulanensis, Glyrine hispi- 

 da, Cicer arietinum, Vicia faha, and Pimm satiniin. 



It requires from 40 to 50 days to complete its transforma- 

 tions during the winter season in Honolulu. Mating and 

 oviposition take place shortly after emergence from the seed. 



B melius prosopis. 



This species was originally described from the Colorad(^ 

 Desert of California but is now known also from South Amcn-- 

 ica and may well have reached us from there. In California, 

 Arizona and Texas it is known to breed in the seeds of Pro- 

 sopis glandulosa and vehdina, mesquite, and P. pubesccns.- the 

 screw bean. It has been known for many years in Hawaii as 

 a serious enemy of the algaroba or kiawe, Prosopis jnhflora. 

 Mr. Fullaway records breeding it from pigeon peas, but this 

 has not come under my observation. 



Adults of Bruchus prosopis confined in tubes feed readily 

 on sugar and water and upon the syrupy fluid in the pods of its 

 host-plant, but I was for a long time unable to secure normal 

 oviposition. Several scattered eggs were seen which later 

 disappeared, laid at random without cement to attach them. 

 One w^as placed in a crevice in the hilum of a velvet bean and 

 another under a flap of the cuticle on a Prosopis pod. The 

 habits of the closely related bean bruchus suggested that it 

 might perhaps oviposit in crevices, but the account given by 

 Mr. Fullaway in the Hawaii Ag. Exp. Sta. Kept, for 1912 had 

 led me to expect an egg cemented to the surface of the pod. 

 However, failing to secure such oviposition and failing to find 



