1890.] Entomoldgy. 685 
cinnamon rufous, spotted with black; mandibles brown, black above ; 
and the outer margins of the dorsum smooth, without the black tuber- 
cles which form a large, distinct, quadrangular, plate on the middle of 
the abdomen, and a transverse plate on each of the three posterior 
segments. The smooth margins are dark brown. 
Described from eight males and one female collected at Lincoln, 
Nebraska. The species is well illustrated, both natural size, and with 
the parts magnified (at Plate XXIV), the drawings for which have been 
prepared for my assistant, Miss Freda Detmers.—CLARENCE M, WEED. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE. 
Fic. 1. Astrobunus nigrum Say, male, natural size. 
Fic. 2. Parts of same, magnified: a, dorsal surface of body; 4, eye 
eminence, side view; c, eye eminence, front view; d, palpus, side view ; 
e, claw of palpus, side view. 
The Live Oak Caterpillar.—In a recent number of Zoe, a new 
biological journal published at San Francisco, H. H. Behr adds an- 
other insect to the list of those which the English sparrow indirectly 
protects. He says: ‘‘ There exists around our bay a moth, Phrygan- 
ıdia californica, which lives exclusively on live oak, though I have 
lately found some stray larve on Quercus lobata. When, in 1853, I 
first found the caterpillar of this species I considered it a great prize, 
so rare was the little thing. Gradually the insect became less rare, - 
and as soon asa sufficient number of shot-guns were placed in the 
hands of boys who shot little birds, I had ample opportunities to fill 
the empty spot in my collection that for years had only the male of the 
species on a pin. 
“I have counted four generations of the insect in one summer. 
Nevertheless they did not endanger the life of the trees inhabited by 
them. There existed still a sufficient number of insect-feeding birds 
to decimate the four broods, especially a species of titmouse, then 
rather common in our surroundings, and very frequent in Marion 
county, which took care of the eggs and the adult caterpillars. This 
bird managed in some way to escape destruction by the shot-gun ; but 
then the English sparrow was introduced by some well-meaning but im- 
perfectly instructed people. The sparrow soon drove away the titmouse. 
The titmouse no more decimated the Phryganidia egg and larva, at 
both of which the sparrow looked with a contemptuous smile. The 
Phryganidia multiplied in mathematical progression ; the leaves of the 
live oaks, for instance, at San Rafael, disappeared four times a sum- 
