274 Forty-second Report on the State Museum. [132] 



The larvae were broadly elliptical. Head testaceous; eyes black; 

 first joint of the antennse testaceous, second joint pale basally, and 

 the others pale at the joints. Thorax testaceous anteriorly, with two 

 black spots on its hind margin, separated by a pale mesial line. 

 Abdomen red, with eight transverse dorsal lines, broken mesially by 

 a pale line; the rudimentary wing-pads black. Legs pale; femora 

 darker above; tibise brown-spotted. 



Pupse. — Wing-pads more than one-half as long as the abdomen, 

 shining black, with a broad whitish longitudinal line from their base, 

 but not reaching the tip near their outer margin; this line continued 

 in yellow upon the thorax, dividing each lateral black spot into two; — 

 the outer one being simply a marginal line. A yellowish dorsal line 

 from the thorax over the abdomen; segments black except on their 

 posterior margin and at their sides; femora with two black rings. 



The imago from the above appeared on June thirteenth, in three 

 examples, and proved to be the species named above, and commonly 

 known as the " Four-lined leaf-bug." They 

 were the variety b, described by Dr. Fitch as 

 wanting the black dot at the end of the outer 

 black stripe on the wing-covers, on the triangu- 

 lar piece marked off by a suture before the 

 membranous tip. As the three examj^les were 

 females, it was thought that the absence of the 

 black spot might be a sexual feature, or possibly 

 Fig. 42.— The four-lined certain broods might be thus characterized. In 



leaf-bug P(EciLoc APS us accordance with a request made to Mr. Goff, a 



LiNEATUs, three times the , « i 



natural size. number of examples from the garden at the 



Experiment Station were sent to me. It was found from them that 



the spot gave no special indication, as of the thirteen males received 



seven were without the spot, and of the seven females, two. 



Mr. Goff stated that for the past three yeai-s this insect had 

 appeared in very nearly the same place in the garden, but in some- 

 what greater numbers the present season. Last year (in 1884) it 

 made a serious attack upon gooseberry bushes at the Experiment 

 Station, depleting the tips of the young growth, so that they shriveled, 

 wilted down and died. It was also received from Batavia, N. Y., as 

 injuring sage in a garden. 



While so abundant and destructive in my own garden in 1881 (see 

 First Rept. Insects N. Y., p. 271), it has not been injurious since, 

 although examples of it have been observed each year, feeding on the 

 black currant, Ribes nigrum. 



