154 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



the eggs of the Rocky Mountain Locust, and evi- 

 dently preying upon said eggs. 



This species is so closely allied to ^. /rt//?)>^j 

 Dej., that we do not believe the two should be 

 considered distinct. The following characters 

 are supposed by coleopterists to distinguish them : 

 In y/. comma the hind angles of thorax are almost 

 rounded, the scutellar stria long, and the black 

 color extends to the base of the elytra ; in A. 

 pallipcs the thorax is less narrowed behind, the 

 hind angles more distinct, though obtuse, the 

 scutellar stria is very short and the black color 

 does not reach the base of <he elytra. When 

 abundant material is examined these differences 

 are seen to so graduate that they should be con- 

 sidered varietal rather than specific* 



Not Aletia Chrysalides.— I send you by this 

 mail a match-box containing eight chrysalides, 

 taken from the ground by my hands in chopping 

 cotton. Our fields were all stripped by the worms 

 last August, and for several weeks the naked 

 stalks were ornamented by their chrysalides, 

 pendant from limb and bough. I suppose these 

 are the same, but you can judge of that when the 

 moth comes out, as they are full of vitality. 



The field from which the inclosed were taken, 

 was broken up the ist week in January. They 

 are plentiful wherever cotton was planted last 

 year. Have not yet discovered any in the fields 

 where corn was planted last year. Would like to 

 know if the specimens develop our peculiar 

 enemy. — Geo. P. White, Brown Station, Ala., 

 May 4 1880. 



The chrysalides sent by our correspondent are 

 not those of Aletia. They will produce a dark 

 graj moth known ■&.% Agrotis inermis Han. (saticia 

 Hlibn.) and which was fully figured and de- 

 scribed by us in 1868, in our ist Report on the 

 Insects of Missouri. The larva is one of the com- 

 mon cutworms that injure cotton in the spring of 

 the )^ear. You may rest assured that no chrysalis 

 that is dug up from the ground will be that of the 

 Cotton Moth. 



Mud-wasp and Parasite. — J/. T., Vineland, 

 [Fig. 59.] 



Odynerus flavipes: a, clay cover : Zi, cell ; <r, female wa'. 

 (after Riley.) 



* Having requested Dr. G. H. Horn's opinion on ihe abov 

 subject, he writes : " In reply to your query as to Agonoderus 

 pallipes and comma, I will say that I have always considered 

 the two the same. I do not find the differences in the hind 

 angles and the scutellar stria constant, i. e. they are not al- 

 ways concurrent. I am also willing to go a step further and 

 add rugicoUis to the synonymy. 



N'. y. — The Mud-wasp you send, reared from a 

 series of cells agglomerated round a twig, is 

 Odynerus birenimaculatus Sauss., a species allied 

 to O. flavipes Fabr., which we represent in 

 Fig. 59. The parasite bred therefrom is Cryptus 

 jtinceus Cress, {vide Fig. 60). This parasite infests 

 also other Mud-wasps, e. g. those belonging to 

 the genus Agenia. Your wasp uses small 

 Lepidopterous larvce, such as those belonging 

 to the leaf-rollers {TortiicidiE) wherewith to 

 store its nest, first paralyzing them as is usual 

 with the insects of its family. In the case 

 of the specimen from which our illustration 

 was made the wasp built in the hole of an old 

 cotton-spool, making two cells and closing up 



Crvptus junceus, twice nat. size (after Riley). 



each end of the hole in the spool with clay. Other 

 species of the genus Odynerus build either in 

 wood that has been bored by other larvje, or in the 

 interstices of walls, while one species (conformis 

 Sauss.) which we find commonly around Wash- 

 ington makes use of the burrows of a mason-bee 

 (Afe/issodfs taiirca Say). 



Monographs again. — Will you please inform 

 me through the columns of the American Ento- 

 mologist, whether there are Monographs of the 

 Elateridce, Curciilionidii, and CoccidcE by which 

 species can be determined ? 



A.lso, to whom shall I address mj'self to ob- 

 tain the government publications on the subject 

 of entomolog}' ? I am so unfortunate as to have 

 no friends in congress to assist ine in obtaining 

 them. — C. D. M., Leicester, Mass. 



A revision of the Elaterido: of the United 

 States was published by Dr. LeConte in the 

 Transactions of the Amer. Phil. Soc, vol. x, 

 1853, but since that time many additional species 

 have been described. The publication of a 

 monograph of this family, in several volumes, by 

 Candeze, was began in 1857, and an appendix to 

 this work entitled Revision de la Monographie des 

 Elateridcs has recentl}' been added by the same 

 author. In Ciirculionida we have now the admir- 

 able monograph of our North American species 

 by Drs. LeConte and Horn, published in the 

 Proceedings of the Amer. Philos. Soc, vol. xv. 

 For the determination of foreign species of this 



