172 



They take a portion of the grains out of the heads they attack. They are not very 

 numerous, perhaps three or four in a rod square. I am at a loss to know what they 

 are or whether they will materially injure our wheat. My neighbors also have 

 them.— June 16, 1883. 



* * * I have just returned from a walk around a 20-acre field of Avheat. My 

 object was to pick off a dozen more of those worms to send you. To my utter sur- 

 prise, though making diligent search, I found but three, one of which I lost on my 

 way to the house. Only a week ago I could have found any number of them in 

 heads of wheat, the same inclosed. You are eA'idently clearly right in saying we 

 need not apprehend much damage from them. Their time is of short duration and 

 seems to be confined to the period soon after the wheat is in head. I don't think 

 they affect the kernels when fully formed. — June 25, 1883. 



Fig. 13. — Dolerus arvensis Say, female (original). 



D. arvensis is easily distinguished from otlier species of the genus by 

 its general blue-black or violaceous color. The female, Fig. 13, is con- 

 siderably larger than the male, and is further distinguished by having 

 the prothorax and mesothorax more or less rufous. The male is uni- 

 formly blue-black, and was described and still appears in the lists as 

 D. iDiicolor. 



East of the Rocky Mountains the species is generally distributed 

 and abundant. The National Collection contains twenty-five specimens 

 of this species as against four each of J), collar is and D. sericeus. These 

 were received from Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Indiana, Mis- 

 souri, Illinois, and Ohio, those from Ohio being received from H. Keenan, 

 Quaker City, who took them on pear buds which he said they were 

 injuring. 



That they do no injury whatever to the buds or bloom of the Pear, 

 but frequent them merely to lap up nectar or gTains of pollen from the 

 petals, has been shown by Prof. S. A. Forbes, in his Third Report on 

 the Insects of IlUnois, pp. 100-102. Prof. Forbes and other writers 

 refer to this insect as breeding on the Willow, the only authority for 

 which seems to come from the occurrences of the adults abundantly 

 about the bloom of the Willow in the spring, where they are attracted 

 by the bloom merely, as they are also to the bloom of Pear and other 

 trees. 



