PSYCHE. 



NOTES ON MELITTIA 



CUCURBITAE AND A RELATED 

 SPECIES. 



BY SAMUEL HUBBARD SCUDDER, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



The toleralilv full account o^ Mcliitia 

 cHCurhitac recently given bv Mv. J. A. 

 Lintnei' ni his second Report on the 

 injurious insects of New York recalled 

 to me some observations made on the 

 ravages of this insect in the squash 

 vines on Cape Cod, and from mv notes 

 made at the time, now more than 

 twenty-five years ago, I condense tiie 

 following statement. 



My examination was made in the 

 earl\- part of .September, and there were 

 to be found at that time two kinds of 

 aegerian larvae within the plants, a 

 larger and a smaller, and in the ground 

 were found cocoons containing larvae of 

 tlie larger kind — which subsequent ob- 

 servation showed lemained through the 

 winter without changing to chrysalis, 

 and also a number of pupal exuviae 

 protruiling from the surface of ground 

 which had not been hoed for a month 

 or more. 



There are thus apparently two species 

 of aegerians destructive to the squash, 

 and it seems to be probable that the one 

 represented by the smaller larvae and 

 the chrysalis-skins is either a later ap- 

 pearing species or that it is double- 

 brooded, the brood represented by the 

 smaller larvae in September being the 

 later. There can be little doubt that 

 both were aegerians, as they agreed 

 closely in all structural peculiarities, 

 and they could hardly have been difler- 



crent stages of the same species, since 

 the}' diflered so much in the color of the 

 head and thoracic scgjiients and in the 

 general markings. The following des- 

 cription of the larva oi I\I. c/iciirbitae, 

 fuller than before published, is drawn 

 up from m\ notes. 



Mead very dark brown, deepening into 

 lilack, with a median white band reaching to 

 the frontal triangle and passingdown its sides ; 

 a few scattered hairs are seen. Body white, 

 the dorsal vessel visible through the cuticle, 

 tlie surtace smooth, but with two or three 

 hairs on each segment, and on the terminal 

 segment some faint light brown spots and 

 four backward-pi-ojecting hairs. The first 

 thoracic segment has on the dorsal surface 

 two oblique, curved, light brown bands, 

 nearly meeting posteriorly, their concavities 

 outward; between their extremities on the 

 front of the segment are a pair of transverse, 

 almost microscopic, semicircular lines open- 

 ing forwards. On second and third thoracic 

 segments (my notes fail to say whether above 

 or below) a transverse row of hair-bearing, 

 scarcely perceptible, tubercles. Legs light 

 brown ; in place of prolegs, rings of black 

 bristles. Spiracles light horn-color, sui-- 

 rounded by white, and this hy a horny areola. 

 Length 25 mm; breadth a little more than 

 6 mm. 



As this and the smaller larva were at 

 first taken for diflerent stages of the 

 same species, the difference in their 

 habits was not so carefully noted as it 

 should have been. The present species 

 was, however, by f:xr the more destruc- 



