490 P. W. CLAASSEN 
middle paler; on the disc, nearly in the middle,is an elongate dark brown spot surrounded 
by white, and in a line with it at the end of the discoidal cell is another similar spot: a brownish — 
streak frequently connects the two, and the entire apical portion of the wing is more or less 
streaked with brown. . . Posterior wings pale gray, with grayish- ochreous cilia. 
Dicymolomia pate Walk. 
Dicymolomia julianalis Walk. is a member of the family Pyralidae. : 
It is found throughout the southern part of the United States. Ithaca 
is probably near its northern limit. Its host plant is Typha latzfolia. 
Life history and habits 
Dicymolomia julianalis Walk. has but one generation a year. It 
passes the winter in the half-grown larval stage. The habits of this} 
insect are very similar to those of Lymnaecia phragmitella. 
Egg-laying.— The eggs of D. julianalis are placed in the heads of the }; 
cat-tail, being inserted singly in the down, or pappus, of the-seed. They }} 
common. It was not at all difficult to locate them, once it had been } 
discovered where to look for them. The period a eo. has not i 
the middle of Tale and none after hae 1O¥-ihe ee are ein in fj 
the heads of the cat-tail with the blunt, or anterior, end outward. 
Several eggs are shown in the cross section of a head of Typha latifolia, 
in Plate XLIII, 45. 
On July 25, 1916, the writer watched one of these eggs hatch. The? 
larva lay in the egg, stretched to its full length, and could be seen moving § 
back and forth inside the egg shell. It ate its way through the egg shell} 
and escaped (Plate X LILI, 46). When about half of its body was out of thet 
shell, the larva gained a foothold on the pappus and pulled itself the rest} 
of the way out of the shell. The larva does not devour the empty shell, 
but at once buries itself in the head of the plant, where it eats the tender) 
styles of the pistillate flowers. The empty shell remains attached to the 
pappus. The time from the moment that the larva actually began to 
eat through the egg-shell till it was freed was about twenty-fivel 
minutes. 
The larva D. julianalis spends its entire larval period in the head}: 
of the cat-tail, obtaining its food, first from the styles of the pistillate™ 
