THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 113 



few particles of whatever soil it happens on, with silken threads. The 

 ^chrysalis is f of an inch in length, deep shiny brown and thickly punc- 

 tured except on the posterior border of the segments and especially 

 of those three immediately below the wing-sheaths, where it is red- 

 dish and not polished ; it terminates in a blunt point ornamented with 

 two thorns. The moth (Fig. 82, b,) which is called the Painted Mam- 

 estra, appears during the latter part of July, and it is a prettily marked 

 species, the front wings being of a beautiful and rich purple-brown, 

 blending with a delicate lighter shade of brown in the middle ; the 

 ordinary spots in the middle of the wing, with a third oval spot more 

 or less distinctly marked behind the round one, are edged and tra- 

 versed by white lines so as to appear like delicate net-work ; a trans- 

 verse zigzag white line, like a-sprawling W is also more or less visible 

 near the terminal border, on which border there is a series of white 

 specks ; a few white atoms are also sprinkled in other places on the 

 wing. The hind wings are white, faintly edged with brown on the 

 upper and outer borders. The head and thorax are of the same color 

 as the front wings, and the body has a more grayish cast. There are 

 two broods of this insect each year, the second brood of worms ap- 

 pearing in the latitude of St. Louis from the middle of August along 

 into October, and in all probability passing the winter in the chrysalis 

 state, though a few may issue in the fall and hybernate as moths, or 

 may even hybernate as worms; for Mr. J. H. Parsons, of N. Y., found 

 that some of the worms which were on his Ruta Baga leaves, stood a 

 frost hard enough to freeze potatoes in the hill, without being killed.* 

 I have noticed that the spring brood confines itself more especially to 

 young cruciferous plants, such as cabbages, beets, spinach, etc., but 

 have found the fall brood collecting in hundreds on the heads and 

 flower-buds of asters, on the White-berry or Snow-berry (Symphori- 

 carpus racemosus) ; on different kinds of honey-suckle, on mignonette, 

 and on asparagus : they are also said to occur on the flowers of clover, 

 and are quite partial to the common Lamb's-quarter or Goosefoot 

 (Chenopodium album). 



On account of their gregarious habit when young, they are very 

 easily destroyed at this stage of their growth. 



THE TARNISHED PLANT-BUG— Capsus oblineatus, Say.f 



[Heteroptera Capsidae.] 



Quite early last spring while entomologizing in Southern Illinois, 



* Practical Entomologist, TI, p. 21. 



f This bug was originally described by Beauvois as Coreus linearis, and subsequently as Cap- 

 ms oblineatus by Say. Harris in speaking- of it refers it to the sub-genus Phytocoris Fallen, and by 

 mistake, changes Beauvois' specific name linearis, to lineolaris, which he translates into popular 

 language as the " Little-lined Plant-bug." As Say's description is the only one I hav« access to, 

 I have retained the name he gave it, as being eminently appropriate. 

 8— E R 



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