18 DEPARTMENT BULLETIN 1267, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
DURATION OF THE PUPA STAGE 
The pupa stage may last from 9 to 44 days, but usually falls be- 
tween 10 and 19 days, so that two weeks may be said to be a fair 
average period for the duration of the stage under normal condi- 
tions. The precise length of this period unquestionably is deter- 
mined by the prevailing temperatures. Instances in which the length 
of the stage is much in excess of the normal pertain to individuals 
which have undergone their devolopment late in the season. 
The earliest date on which pupe have been obtained at Tappahan- 
nock is July 31, when there appeared in one of the breeding boxes a 
pupa which had developed from a larva collected at the same locality 
on June 30. The earliest record of actually finding pupe in the field 
is August 12. They appear to be most abundant during the last part 
of August and first half of September. Pupz have been found in 
the field as late as November and it seems quite probable that a small 
i 
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| i ea rf 
1 (Qs) 
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Fic. 8.—Ventral view of adult 
ric. 7.—Huetheola rugiceps: Euetheola rugiceps, showing 
Adult. (Drawn by Henry structural characters. (Drawn 
Fox) by Henry Fox) 
number may fail to mature before winter. There is no evidence that 
such pupe ever survive until the following spring, as all the pup 
in the possession of the writers buried in the ground at Charlottes- 
ville perished during the winter. 
ADULT 
DESCRIPTION 
The adult of Huetheola rugiceps (Pl. I, B; II, A; figs. 7, 8) is a rather stout, 
jet black beetle, having an average length in Virginia and Tennessee material 
of from 13 to 16 millimeters. The surface in recently emerged individuals is 
highly polished, but is dull and opaque in old and worn ones. 
° Casey (1, p. 187) in his recent memoirs asserts that the body is “not very shining,” 
and gives this as one of the characters distinguishing Huetheola rugiceps from another 
form from Honduras, which he describes as a new species, hondurana. The writers are 
inclined to think from Casey’s description that he had at hand only old individuals of 
rugiceps—doubtless collected during the spring, as the younger ones, collected in the fall, 
are almost invariably rather highly polished and of an intense black color. 
et 
ett 
