166 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [April, ’08 
dicated by a short brown seta. Anal segment a little darker 
dorsally than ground color. Pupa is normal, light brown. 
Food plant: Vernonia, Iron weed. 
The food piant of S. bassiformis is given in the literature 
as Eupatorium purpureum Linn. or Joe-pie weed. This plant 
has been extensively explored by Mr. Bird, Mr. Merrick and 
the writer. While it is by no means free from insect depre- 
dations we have not observed it infested by the larva of bassi- 
formis in this section. 
Sesia pyralidiformis Walker. 
This modest little species was encountered in a pasture field 
while I was searching for bassiformis on a very hot day in 
August, 1906, It was slowly flying along near the ground 
and settled on a dead daisy head. Several specimens were 
taken that day and a few more during later visits. All the 
specimens occurred in a comparatively small area which led 
me to the conclusion that its food plant would be among the 
plants in this field. About a month after I had taken the last 
specimen I went to this place and looked for its probable food 
plant. The only plants of any prominence were iron weed and 
boneset. As the former had disclosed a borer I commenced 
splitting the stems of boneset and soon observed the very neat 
gallery of a larva leading into the roots. Many plants were 
found to be infested but these larvae were quite small, and 
after testing patches of boneset in different localities and find- 
ing these plants infested almost everywhere I concluded to 
wait until the following year to continue my observations. 
During July, 1907, I discovered a patch of boneset in a 
field near New Brighton, Pa., in which about one-half of the 
plants harbored a larva. Several dozen plants were trans- 
planted in a breeding cage, and on August 18th Sesia pyrali- 
diformis disclosed its identity. About 30 specimens emerged 
from these plants, all appearing from 8-10 A. M. Copula- 
tion took place about one hour after emerging and lasted from 
1 to 2 hours. ) 
The imagos were very abundant in the locality where I 
