14 



A large number of larvse and pupae were secured and taken home in 

 order that I might be able to study the method of feeding in the larvse, se- 

 cure adults, and watch the ovi position of the females which, I judged, 

 might differ from those previously studied in case they proved of a differ- 

 ent species. While collecting this material, not only many dead pupte 

 were noticed, but also larvse, lying on the surface of the ground, many of 

 which had turned black, wholly or in part after the manner of diseased 

 Cabbage-worms, which led to the suspicion that they had been attacked 

 by a fungus disease, which had reduced their number and consequent 

 injury. While all living material was, on my arrival home, placed in a 

 breeding cage and thus kept out of doors, all of the pupte were de- 

 stroyed, almost entirely, I believe, by this fungoid enemy, which Dr. J. 

 C.Arthur informs me is undescribed, and for which he proposes the MS. 

 name Empusa paohyrrhinw. One larva constructed its cell, in the earth 

 in the breeding cage, and transformed to the pupa, but the next day 

 this pupa worked itself upwards out of the cell, and was found lying on 

 the surface dead and covered with spores of Empusa. How much this 

 fungus had to do with the stopping of depredations of the larva on 

 the wheat, it is of course impossible to say, but it must have destroyed 

 a large portion of the pest. 



The first adult api)eared in the cage on the 28th, two days after 

 removal from the field, and proved to belong to the genus Pachyrrhina. 

 The adults emerged so very sparingly, and at such long intervals, that 

 no opportunity was offered to secure fertilized eggs or note the ovipos- 

 iting habits of the females. The first of the only two females reared 

 was nearly dead when a male emerged, and, though fertilized, died 

 without ovipositing, and the male relused to pair a second time, leaving 

 the second female without a mate, she dying before a second male 

 emerged. Two females and four males were all the adults secured from 

 the material brought home. An occasional adult was observed in the 

 vicinity of LaFayette and one found in abreediugcage placed overa plat 

 of blue-grass, which fact, together with the occurrence of the larvae 

 about timothy, in Mr. Kendall's field, leads to the suspicion that the 

 insect may breed in both grasses and clover. Young wheat was seri- 

 ously damaged during March throughout the State, but how much was 

 due to the attacks of these insects it was impossible to determine. 



May 24, 1890. 



