34 



PhyllopJiaga forbesi Glasgow 



Forbesi is a species recently described,* hitherto frequently con- 

 fused with epliilida Say. It is abundant in southern Illinois, and has 

 a considerable additional range in the Southern States. It was ob- 

 tained by us first at lights in Odin, Marion county, May 21, 1908, and 

 also June 21 of the same year at Thebes, Alexander county, again at 

 lights, and August 10 from the ground in collections made by follow- 

 ing the plow. A special search was begun for it in 1909 with the 

 result that 2766 specimens were obtained at Odin, Olney, Ashley, 

 Carbondale, and Anna, the earliest May 21 and the latest August 6. 

 It was most abundant from June 17 thru July to early August. In 

 1910, 602 additional specimens were collected, July 21 to 25, at Patoka 

 in Marion county and at Carbondale, and 13 were taken July 21 at 

 Urbana, the northernmost point at which the species has been found. 



In 1911 an attempt was made to ascertain the limits of its dis- 

 tribution northward, with the result that 352 specimens (which have 

 not been included in my tabulations or summaries) were collected 

 July 27 to August 6 at Centralia, Odin, and Kinmundy in Marion 

 county, at Effingham in Effingham county, at Greenville in Bond 

 county, and at Eamsey in Fayette county, but none were found at 

 Taylorville, Pana, Mattoon, Charleston, Neoga, or Litchfield. 



The food of forbesi has proved to be as peculiar as its late sea- 

 sonal period. Of our 2088 specimens collected from their food-plants, 

 852 were from cherry-trees, 463 from peach, 422 from apple, 29 from 

 persimmon, and 15 from plum — 1781 specimens, or 85 percent of the 

 whole, from these various fruit-trees. Except for 58 specimens from 

 the rose, the remaining 15 percent were scattered in small numbers 

 over sycamore-, walnut-, elm-, oak-, hickory-, and willow-trees. It is 

 thus essentially a cherry, peach, and apple species, at least in Illinois. 

 Its larva has not been identified by us, and nothing is known to me 

 of its life history. 



PJiyllopliaga rugosa Melsheimer 



Rugosa is essentially a northern species in Illinois, 84 percent of 

 our 2769 specimens having come from northern Illinois, 14.8 percent 

 from central, and only 1.2 percent from the southern part of the state. 

 This was, indeed, the dominant species in northeastern Illinois in 

 1907, if we may judge by collections from lights made at Algonquin, 

 McHenry county, from June 14 to July 16, 67 percent of our speci- 

 mens taken there at that time belonging to rugosa. It was subdomi- 

 nant the following year in Cook and Kane counties, when it was sur- 

 passed only by fusca (fusca, 35.2 percent; rugosa, 18.9 percent), but 

 in the three following years and in 1913 it dropped away to insig- 

 nificant numbers in our northern Illinois collections — to 7 percent in 



Bull. 111. State Lab. Nat. Hist., Art. V, Vol. XI, p. 378. 



