Notes on Melitera Dentata Grote. 



BY VERNON L. KELLOGG. 



WITH PLATE VIIL 



At the meeting of the Entomological Club of the A. A. A. S., held 

 in August, 1891, at Washington, Dr. Rile)' called attention to the 

 habits of Melitei-a prodenialis Walker. The larvae burrow into and 

 feed upon the fleshy leaves of the prickly pear, Opuntia. Dr. Riley's 

 specimens came from Florida. Prof. J. B. Smith has recently bred 

 the moth from the prickly pear in New Jersey. His notes were pre- 

 sented at the same meeting of the Club, and the brief references to the 

 interesting notes of Doctors Riley and Smith, made in the Canadian 

 Entomologist (v. xxiii, num. 11, pp. 242 and 256), suggest the pre- 

 sentation of the following notes on Melitera dentata Grote, the western 

 species of this Phycitid genus. 



Chancellor F. H. Snow, of this University, while investigating a 

 grasshopper "outbreak" {Dissosteira longipennis') in eastern Colorado 

 in July, 1891, noted the withered and dying condition of many leaves 

 of the common prickly pear cactus {Opuntia missouriensis'), and on ex- 

 amining the leaves found in them certain large, naked, bluish larvae. 

 The larvae were imbedded in the fleshy leaves, eating away the soft 

 inner tissue. The hollowed-out spaces were nearly filled with irreg- 

 ularly spherical, yellowish, translucent casts. The attacked leaves 

 were withered and brown without. Prof. Snow took a few leaves and 

 larvae on July 16, near Arriba, Colorado, and brought them to the 

 laboratory. 



The larvae were put into breeding-cage on July 18. On July 28 

 one larva had spun up and pupated in a corner of the cage behind a 

 small porcelain dish. Another had made a cocoon in a broken, empty 

 pupa-case of Eacles inperialis, but died before pupating. On August 

 the adults appeared, and have been determined by Prof. J. B. 

 Smith as M. dentata, (irote. As I am aware of no description of the 

 earlier stages of this species, I record the following notes of descri])tion : 



Egg. About 1-1.2 millimeters in diameter, surface with broad, 

 meridian-like furrows from one pole for about one-third of the dis- 

 tance to the other pole. Color, creamy white. 



(3y) KAN. U.NIV. (JUAR., VOL. I, NO. I, JULY, lSy3. 



