THE SOUTHERN BEET WEB WORM. 21 



DISTRIBUTION. 



This is without doubt a species of tropical origin and inclined to be 

 cosmopolitan in any country suited to it climatologically. We have 

 in the National Museum collections material from Pernambuco, Bonito 

 Province, Brazil, as well as from Georgia, Texas, Florida, and the 

 District of Columbia. It is recorded also from the West Indies and 

 South Africa. 



HISTORICAL AND BIOLOGICAL NOTES. 



This beet web worm was first described as "PTialsena 2-punctalis " 

 in 1794. 1 In the year 1880 the larva was observed feeding upon 

 cauliflower at Savannah, Ga., where it was stated to be very destruc- 

 tive. In consequence it was given the name of "Cauliflower botis." 2 

 It was also noticed that it fed on ragweed (Ambrosia), which is 

 probably the original food plant, cauliflower being an acquired one, 

 and perhaps not a food plant under normal conditions. The following 

 year it was again noticed at Savannah, Ga., on pigweed, the larvae 

 webbing the leaves together and destroying many plants. Nothing 

 further seems to have been recorded of its habits. 



NATURAL ENEMIES. 



Phorocera erecta Coq., a tachina fly, was reared from this species in 

 September, 1906. This parasite has been reared from the related 

 Loxostege similalis, at Victoria, Tex. 



Amovphota sp. near orgyise, an ichneumonid parasite, was reared 

 January 15-29, 1908, from Pachyzancla bipunctalis, obtained from 

 Dade City, Fla., in October and December of the preceding year. A 

 single female 3 before the writer measures 8 mm. in length and is 

 opaque black, with castaneous abdomen and middle and posterior 

 legs. The fore legs, and the tibiae and tarsi on the middle pair of 

 legs are light yellow, as is also the first joint of the antenna, the 

 remainder of the antenna being black. 



Bracon sp., a small blackish species of this genus, 4 was reared from 

 this host at Brownsville, Tex., November 21, 1908. 



ASSOCIATED INSECTS. 



In addition to the parasitic natural enemies of this species which 

 have been mentioned, some interesting species have been reared. 

 Prominent among these is a moth of the same family and with some- 

 what similar habits, known as the Hawaiian beet webworm 5 (Hy- 

 menia [Zinckenia] fascialis Cram.). It was reared by Mr. H. M. Rus- 



• l Fabricius, Entomologia Systematica, vol. 3, pt. 2, p. 232, 1794. 



2 Botis repetitalis Grote, n. sp., Comstock, J. H.— Rept. U. S. Dept. Agr. for 1880, p. 270, 1881. 



» Chttn. No. 303°i. 



« Chttn. No. 1064°i. 



6 Bul. 109, Part I, Bur. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr., 1911. 



