May 1S93.] 



PSYCHE. 



447 



Several larvae sometimes enter the seed 

 through the same hole. At the first 

 moult this post-embryonic larva loses its 

 legs, hairs, and thoracic shield, and takes 

 on the characters of the mature larva 

 shown at figure 1, d. Figure 1, c, 

 shows the head of a nearly full grown 

 larva in front greatly enlarged ; only the 

 cephalic border of the front is brown, 

 thus giving us a character which will 

 enable us to readily separate the larva of 

 obtectus in any stage after the first 

 moult from those of quadrznzaculatus 

 shown at fig. 2, e. 



The pupa is represented much en- 

 larged dXf (adapted from Marlatt) . At 

 g is represented a bean natural size from 

 which beetles have escaped. Figure 1 , 

 a shows the adult ; the much enlarged 

 antenna and hind leg bring out the char- 

 acteristics of these appendages. The 

 beetles vary as much in size as do those 

 of quadrimaculatus, but the markings 

 of obtectus are quite constant. 



After breeding several generations of 

 obtectus among dry beans, I extended 

 my experiments to other seeds and 

 found that the beetles oviposited readily 

 upon the seeds of our common pea, on 

 corn, on buckwheat, on the large Euro- 

 pean bean, on lentils, on chick peas, 

 and on the seeds of Lathyriis sativus. 

 I have reared the beetles from all of the 

 above seeds except the corn and buck- 

 wheat. Larvae are at work in the buck- 

 wheat at the present time ; and although 

 the larvae entered the corn kernels 

 readily, they seemed to be unable to 

 work well in the much harder interior 

 of the kernel and all died shortly after 

 the first moult. 



Bruchus quadrimaculatus Fabr. 



In "Insect life," v, 32 and 165, Dr. 

 Riley says that in January, 1885 the en- 

 tomological department at Washington 

 "received B. qttadri?naculatus Fabr. 

 swarming in what are called 'black-eyed 

 table-beans' from Texas that were exhib- 

 ited at the Atlanta Cotton exposition. 

 In oviposition in the stored beans this 

 species differs from the common bean 

 weevil in that it deposits its eggs in the 

 beans. Also bred from cowpeas(Doli- 

 chos sp.) from Texas." This seems to 

 be the extent of our recorded knowledge 

 of the habits and life history of this 

 Bruchus. 



Nov. 18, 1S92, Crosman Bros., seeds- 

 men at Rochester, N. Y., sent me a 

 package of peas returned to them from 

 the south which was swarming with 

 weevils. Dr. Horn identified them as B. 

 quadrimaculatus Fabr. as recognized 

 by him in his paper of 1873 (Trans. Am. 

 ent. soc, iv, 318). I notice that F. 

 Baudi (Deutsch. ent. zeit., xxxi. p. 

 36, 1887) considers quadrimaculatus a 

 variety of omatus Bohm. 



Dr. Horn records the species from 

 the West India islands and the southern 

 states. Nov. 28, I received two more 

 packages of infested peas from Crosman 

 Bros. These had been returned to them 

 from Texas. They have had beans 

 returned to them from the south infested 

 in the same manner. 



The beetles were found to vary greatly 

 in size and markings. PI. 16, fig. 2, a 

 represents the beetle ; an antenna and a 

 hind leg have been much more enlarged 

 to bring out the characteristics of those 



