iio6 The American Naturalist. [December, 
negative character, and recorded in the report of the United States 
Department of Agriculture for 1887 (p. 149), as follows: ''These 
observations led me to conclude that the corn plant louse does not 
live over winter in the fields, nor are the eggs deposited about the 
corn in the fall, but that they are deposited about the roots of some 
other plant, most likely one of the grasses." 
Our Injurious ^gerians. — In a paper with this title, recently 
read before the Columbus (Ohio) Horticultural Society, Professor D. 
S. Kellicott made the following introductory remarks, which are wor- 
thy of a wider circulation than they received in the journal of the So- 
ciety in which the paper has been published in connection with the 
accompanying plate. 
There is perhaps no family of Lepidoptera possessing more points of 
interest to the student than the ^geridae. It is separated from fam- 
ilies placed next to it by hard and fast lines. The Sphingidse, or 
hawk-moths, on one hand, are large, thick-bodied moths flying at 
twilight ; their larvse are foliage feeders, having a characteristic acute 
caudal horn on the last ring ; whilst the ^gerians are all numbered 
among the small moths ; their bodies are slender ; they fly only by day, 
often in the brightest sunshine, in which many of them delight ; their 
larvse, so far as known, are borers ; the caudal horn is absent, and in 
consequence of their mining habits their color is not variegated as is 
the case of larvae of Sphinges. On the other hand, the family is as 
clearly distinct from the Thyridae and Zygenidae. 
The unusual interest in the group then begins on account of its 
trenchant character ; it is continued in view of the great beauty of 
the species, and beauty ought not to be ignored — it is not, even by 
the traditionally bloodless specialists ; again, their natural history is 
full of suggestions, especially the remarkable protective mimicry ex- 
hibited by all or nearly all species. Moreover, many of the larvae are 
harmful to farm and garden products, or to ornamental shrubs and 
trees ; a few are real pests. 
The aegerian moths are charming objects. Their graceful, delicate 
forms and rich coloration are scarcely surpassed by any of nature s 
countless objects of fine beauty. Steel-blue, red, orange, and golden 
are prevailing colors ; several of these, always harmoniously blended, 
often constitute the ornamentation as welf as the protection of a single 
individual. 
Their close resemblance to insects of very different colors was ob- 
served long before the significance of protective mimicry was under- 
