REPOET OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 315 



(lays of April, 55'^.26j same for first fifteeu days of May, 52°.30; snmo 

 for last sixteen days of May, 6G0.26. 



Tlie average temperature from the loth to the22d of March was IS^.SV. 

 Oil tlie 23d, the day my first adult appeared out of doors, the averujic 

 ii'!n[)oraturo had risen to 2oO.50. 



Tliesc figures are also interesting as indicating the influence of me 

 tcorological conditions upon the insect in its earlier stages, and how lit 

 lUt aid we may expect from this direction in keeping the pest in chccK. 



^Vhile, as above indicated, wo have no facts that enable us to accounr 

 (or the appearance of gi-ande, except that they are the offspring ol' 

 trih'ci, it does not seem to necessarily follow that all eggs doposiled in 

 eariy spring develop into grande. 



The adult tritici, bred the 20th of June, ISSl, together witli the <1en<l 

 adult found a fev/ days later, were both from plants removed from a 

 field near Bioomington, 111., the 0th of May, both straws showing am- 

 j)!e evidence that tliese adults Avcro the result of spring ovipositioii, 

 thereby raising the perplexing question as to what condition or environ- 

 ment is necessary to cause some eggs to produce grande and others 

 tridcl, a question that I am not in a position to answer. 



Another, if possible more j^uzzling, conq)lication arises from the fact 

 that, among all of the specimens of tritici or grande that I have either 

 bred or captured, not a single male has been observed, and all have been 

 closely scanned with this point in view, except such as were transferred 

 from the field to plants under cover for the purpose of securing eggs 

 for future experimentation. 



All observations relative to the period during which grande exists in 

 the adult verify those made last season. 



An occasional adult was observed on spring wheat, but, although the 

 grass-land where the two first females were taken was sVept over 

 again and again, no additional examples were obtained. 



^V^e now have wlicat-straw relied under cover of Swiss muslin, and 

 also straw taken from the fields, in both of which I know grande to have 

 oviposited, and besides these a good supply of plants, reared during 

 the present autumn, also under cover of muslin. 



By breeding and experimentation, both indoors and out, we may hope 

 to obtain souui light on the obscure points in the life-history of these 

 insects. 



THE GRAIN SPIIENOPIIORUS. 



{Sphenophorus parvuluSj Gyll.) 



Srion after locating temporarily at Oxford, lud., in June, ISS-l, niyat- 

 f on ! i on was several times called to the fact that a field of rye, near town, 

 l.aJ, the previous season, when fully headed out, been afi'ected by some 

 (lilficnlty which caused many of the straws to wither and die from the 

 -round upward. During the latter part of June a similar trouble was 

 .ioscrved in a rye field, and an examination of some of these affected 

 s! ; a ws revealed the seat as Avell as the source of the trouble. Between 

 i!m> tirstand second joints above the ground was found a small, robust, 

 white larva, with a brown head. As the bodies of these larva? were 

 suRiciently large to fill the cavity in the straws, we supposed that they 

 must have reached very nearly their maximum growth, as there was no 

 evidence that they left one straw to enter another. 



Attempts to breed these, however, proved altogether abortive, and » 

 second lot was secured with no better success. 



On the 1st of July we found in wheat straw not only larva? in all 

 roijpcota like those found in rye, but eggs also, in the same position. 



