THE LESSEE CORN STALK-BORER. 3 



and September, but the account does not indicate that the species 

 caused damage in the State at that time. 



In 1905, as reported in the Yearbook of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture for that year (25), sorghum, cowpeas, and crab- 

 grass were totally destroyed in some fields near Columbia, S. C, and re- 

 ports of damage were received from other localities in South Carolina 

 and Georgia. On November 4, 1915, the junior author also found at 

 Nashville, Tenn., a small wheat plant killed by a larva which was 

 nearly full grown and which entirely filled the burrow that it had 

 excavated in the stem. 



SYSTEMATIC HISTORY AND SYNONYMY. 



The lesser corn stalk-borer was first described byZeller (1) from 

 Brazil, Uruguay (Montevideo), and Colombia, South America, and a 

 • single female from "Carolina," U. S. A. In this article, aside from 

 the specific description, Zeller describes three unnamed varieties, 

 basing his descriptions almost entirely on color variations. No further 

 notes are given in this account except from the localities listed. Four 

 years later Blanchard (2) redescribed the species under the name 

 Klasmopalpus anguslellus, erecting for its reception the genus Elas- 

 mopalpus, which recently has been accepted as the proper position 

 for the species. Not until two decades later is there a further refer- 

 ence to the species in the literature, when Zeller (3), in an article 

 dealing with some North American moths, adds somewhat to our 

 knowledge of its seasonal and geographical distribution, recording 

 it from Brazil and Colombia, in South America, and "Carolina" and 

 Texas, in the United States. At the latter place three females were 

 taken, one on July 15 and the other two a month later. He also adds 

 the descriptions of two varieties, incautella and tartarella, based on 

 color variations. Each of these varieties was described from a single 

 specimen, and both were taken at the same place and on the same 

 date. The species as a whole is extremely variable and Zeller himself 

 in a later publication (7) placed incautella as a synonym of lignosella 

 though still retaining tartarella as a valid variety. Another variety, 

 designated as "variety B," was described by Zeller (4) from material 

 collected at Valparaiso, Chile. In 1875, Berg (5), using material 

 taken in Patagonia and elsewhere in southern South America, supple- 

 mented Blanchard's description of E. angustellus, going into detail, 

 particularly in describing the venation, and two years later, in a 

 further paper on Patagonian insects (6) , came to the conclusion that the 

 species he had been considering Blanchard's angustellus was Zeller's 

 lignosella. Since both the species are genotypes, the reduction of 

 angustellus to a synonym of lignosella made Elasmopalpus a synonym 

 of Pempelia, where it remained until revived by Hulst in 1890 (13) for 

 this same species. In 1881 Zeller (7) gave some notes on the amount 



