Typua Insects: THEIR EcotoGicAL RELATIONSHIPS 493 
COLEOPTERA 
Calendra pertinax Oliv.‘ 
Calendra pertinax Oliv. is a beetle belonging to the family Calandridae. 
Blatchley and Leng (1916) state that Calendra pertinax “ranges from 
) New England and Canada to Michigan and Utah, south to Florida.” 
Satterthwait (1920) reports this species from the following states: Indiana, 
Missouri, Maryland, and New York. The author has collected and 
reared it in Lawrence, Kansas, and in Ithaca, New York. A variety 
of pertinax, called typhae Chittendon, has been reared from the roots of 
| Typha latifolia in California. The known host plants of C. pertinax are 
Typha latifolia, Acorus calamus, corn (Zea mays), and Sparganium sp. 
| The writer has found C. pertinax in Typha latifolia and in Sparganium sp. 
Life history and habits 
The weevil is found to be most abundant in Typha patches where the 
plants grow in sod or grassy soil. This has been found to be true in 
New York as well as in Kansas. In the wet, grassy places along the 
railroad tracks south of Ithaca, where Typha grows intermingled with 
| various species of grasses, the larvae were found to be most numerous. 
In some of these patches nearly every plant was infested. However, 
the weevil was found also in the larger cat-tail patches of Renwick Marsh 
around the biological field station. 
Egg-laying— The eggs are inserted into the outer sheath at the base 
of the plant, very near the surface of the ground. No females were 
actually observed in the act of ovipositing, but the newly laid eggs were 
_ always found with the end protruding from a little slit in the sheath (Plate 
XL, 17). In very wet places it is likely that the eggs are placed above 
the surface of the water, but the writer observed them only on cat-tails 
growing in a rather dry situation. 
The period of egg-laying has not been fully determined. Eggs were 
first found in Kansas on June 28, 1917. At that time, however, first- and 
second-instar larvae also were found in the plants, so that egg-laying 
must have started some time before, probably as early as the latter part 
of May. Eges were found in the stems as late as July 17, when the 
4 Determined by Dr, E. C. Van Dyke, 
