11 



Owing- to tho fact that the identit}" of this species with the closel}'^ 

 related European Phlyctcvnta frrrugaHs Hbn,, which has been very 

 carefully studied and descril)ed in detail in its several stages by the 

 Rev. William Buckler in The ^Entomologist's Monthly Magazine for 

 Februar}^, 1878 (pp. 200-204), was not for a moment doubted, no 

 effort was made to watch the various molts or to make detailed 

 descriptions of the larva? while these could be obtained in fresh con- 

 dition for the purpose. When the specific distinctness of the two 

 species was recognized on receipt of the publication of Sir G. F. 

 Hampson, previously cited, it was not possible, owing to the lateness 

 of the season, to secure sufficient material for rearing. 



The development of the omljryo in the Qgg has been observed by 

 Buckler in the case of the European species, and probably this does not 

 differ much in the case of our own species. He states that the margin 

 of the Qgg on the seventh or eighth day ""becomes rounded or raised, 

 and, like the rest of the upper surface, a little convex; the shell then is 

 seen to be minutely pitted, and through it tho whitish, wax-like, 

 opaque, faint form of the larva coiled round can be just discerned; on 

 the ninth day it shows more distinctly, and on the tenth the head can 

 be plainly seen as a Ijlack spot on the margin; the shell is pearly and 

 glistening; and after this the larva hatches in a few hours." 



LITERATURE OF THE SPECIES. 



The first notice that the writer finds which bears upon the biology 

 of this insect was published in 1890 in the form of abstracts from cor- 

 respondence in Insect Life (Vol. II, p. 277), further mention of which 

 will I)C made under the heading of "Divisional Records of Injury." 

 The species is there referred to Botis harveyana Grote. 



In 1893 Mr. G. C. Davis gave a short popular account of this moth, 

 with original illustrations of its different stages, in Bulletin No. 102 

 of the State Agricultural College of Michigan (pp. 28. 29). 



In his report on the insect injuries in Maryland in 1897, Prof. W. G. 

 Johnson mentions the finding of the larva injuring the young and 

 tender lower leaves of tobacco in a hotbed at the Maryland Agricultural 

 Experiment Station (Bui. 9, n. s., Div. Ent., p. 8.3; Bui. 57, Md. Agl. 

 Expt. Sta., p. 7). They were noticed in a])undance froni July 1, and 

 most iuun(U-()us ,Iuly 13. In the Florists' Exchange for October 23 of 

 the same year, Mr. P. H. Dorsett, of this Department, gives a few 

 notes on this moth and its injuries to the leaves of violets, ilkistrated 

 with a half-tone reproduction of a photograph of the insect, natural 

 size, in its different stages and its work. 



It should be added that Mr. Dorsett met with this insect also at 

 Poughkeepsio and Highlands, N. Y. , and he infoi-ms the writer that it 

 was troublesome in greenhouses there and elsewhere along the Hudson 

 River valley. 



