208 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



compared our specimens with three specimens oi physalivorella 

 in the National museuon, and states, "these are very distinct 

 from your specimen " " The latter agrees quite well with G. 

 quercifoliella, but may be a distinct species." 



From this it seems most prob^ible that this insect is unde- 

 scribed, but we prefer to leave the technical description to 

 some specialist ia this group of delicate and inetresting moths. 



ON THE EARLY STAGES OF THE IMBRICATED SNOUT BEETLE. 



{Epicaerus imbricatus Say.) 



While this species has been recognized as a pest since its 

 first economic treatment by Walsh in 1863, our knowledge of 

 its life history has remained as meagre as at that time, nothing 

 being known as to its early stages, except the record of egg 

 laying by Professor Forbes. 



This led us, on receiving specimens of the beetle with the 

 report of their injary to strawberry plants, to attempt their 

 breeding upon this food plant. While we did not succeed in 

 tracing the full history of the species, the securing of eggs and 

 the partial development of the laivss, and the possibility that 

 this clue may assist in the further elucidation of its history is 

 our excuse for presenting this fragmentary acccuut. 



On May 14, 1895, the adulis were placed on a strawberry 

 plant having three or four open leaves and a number of small 

 berries. They immediately crawled up the stems and soon 

 began feeding upon the leaves, cutting a crescent correspond- 

 ing to a line described by the end of the snout. The crescent 

 was apparently quite uniform but soon became irregular when 

 the beetle had to move in order to reach the tissue; so in 

 reality there is no regularity in devouring the leaf and finally 

 nothing is left but the veins and a few angular fragments of 

 leaves. By the following day the effect on the leaves was 

 quite apparent, the beetles eating rapidly, and by the 20th the 

 leaves were ail devoured except a few dry, curled pieces and 

 the stems. They did not attack the berries, but in some cases 

 ate the sepals at the base. 



The beetles began pairing the first day and continued for 

 five or six days. No eggs were observed till the 21st when a 

 number of small, white, glistening eggs were found under a 

 fold of a leaf and as no folded or dry leaves had been left on 

 the plant these eggs had certainly been deposited by the 

 Epicaerus. On the 22d another leaf containing eggs was found 



