36 



except what I have just given. Its close resemblance to I. onaculatum.^ 

 which I have reared from stems of cheat from the vicinity of Cham- 

 paign and Urbana, 111., is quite suggestive, the adults of this last 

 species being abroad during late May and early June in the same 

 localities. 



DESCRIPTION. 



''^Female. — Length, 3.4 mm.; expanse 6.3 mm. Head, pronotmn and mesonotum 

 as with I. rnaculatum; metanotum with only the beginning of a central furrow, its 

 lateral carinte immediately curving around the sides, each inclosing an oval, flat- 

 tened, nearly smooth portion of the metascutellum ; a median carina extending 

 nearly to the tip of the sclerite; pronotal spot moderately large and plainly seen 

 from above, occupying a little more than one-third of the dorsal aspect of the pro- 

 notal foreborder. Abdomen much longer than the thorax ; segments 3 to 5 increasing 

 in length; 6 and 7 as long as 5. Antennae with joint 1 of the funicle twice as long 

 as 2; joints 3, 4, and 5 gradually decreasing in length, subequal in width; joint 5 

 more closely connected with club than with the preceding joint. Color and wing 

 venation as with /. rnaculatum.'" (Howard, Tech. Ser. 2, Div. Ent., U. S. Dept. 

 Agr., pp. 15, 16, 1896.) 



While, as stated, this is probably a wheat-infesting species, it is to 

 be remembered that it has been reared only in a single instance, and 

 it is within the range of possibility that my growing wheat plant, as I 

 supposed, might possibly have been cheat, as it is easy to confuse the 

 young plants, and as the two grow everywhere intermixed in the 

 fields mere collecting offers no solution of the problem whatever. Of 

 the four species of Isosoma which I have reared from common cheat 

 {Brcnnus secalimis), viz, I. elymi^ I. alhnnaculata, 1. hirtifrons, and 

 L onaculatum^ none were found in the wheat straws growing in the 

 same field. 



Should the species become numerous enough to cause serious depre- 

 dation it will probably yield to the same repressive measures as the 

 other grain-attacking forms. 



THE HAIRY-FACED ISOSOMA. 



{Isomma Jiirtifrons Ho^ward. Fig. 13.) 



The type specimens of this species were reared from rye straws 

 collected by Mr. Coquillett, in Mercer County, Cal., in 1885. It was 

 reared by myself from stems of common cheat growing in a wheat 

 field near Urbana, 111., in 1902. I know nothing whatever of its life 

 history except that it appeared in my breeding cages in common with 

 the other cheat-infesting species. The records of the Illinois State 

 Laboratory of Natural History and those of the office of the State 

 entomologist contain numerous references to Isosoma attacking rye. 



