11 



Owing to the fact that the identity of this species with the closely 

 related European Phlyctcenia ferrugalis Hbn., which has been very 

 carefully studied and described in detail in its several stages by the 

 Rev. William Buckler in The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine for 

 February, 1878 (pp. 200-204), was not for a moment doubted, no 

 effort was made to watch the various molts or to make detailed 

 descriptions of the larvae while these could be obtained in fresh con- 

 dition for the purpose. When the specific distinctness of the two 

 species was recognized on receipt of the publication of Sir G. F. 

 Hampson, previously cited, it was not possible, owing to the lateness 

 of the season, to secure sufficient material for rearing. 



The development of the embryo in the egg has been observed by 

 Buckler in the case of the European species, and probably this does not 

 differ much in the case of our own species. He states that the margin 

 of the egg on the seventh or eighth day "becomes rounded or raised, 

 and, like the rest of the upper surface, a little convex; the shell then is 

 seen to be minutely pitted, and through it the whitish, wax-like, 

 opaque, faint form of the larva coiled round can be just discerned; on 

 the ninth day it shows more distinctly, and on the tenth the head can 

 be plainly seen as a black spot on the margin; the shell is pearly and 

 glistening; and after this the larva hatches in a few hours." 



LITERATURE OF THE SPECIES. 



The first notice that the writer finds which bears upon the biology 

 of this insect was published in 1890 in the form of abstracts from cor- 

 respondence in Insect Life (Vol. II, p. 277), further mention of which 

 will be made under the heading of u Divisional Records of Injury." 

 The species is there referred to Botis harveyana Grote. 



In 1893 Mr. G. C. Davis gave a short popular account of this moth, 

 with original illustrations of its different stages, in Bulletin No. 102 

 of the State Agricultural College of Michigan (pp. 28, 29). 



In his report on the insect injuries in Maryland in 1897, Prof. W. G. 

 Johnson mentions the finding of the larva injuring the young and 

 tender lower leaves of tobacco in a hotbed at the Maryland Agricultural 

 Experiment Station (Bui. 9, n. s., Div. Ent., p. 83; Bui. 57, Md. Agl. 

 Expt. Sta., p. 7). They were noticed in abundance from July 1, and 

 most numerous July 13. In the Florists' Exchange for October 23 of 

 the same year, Mr. P. H. Dorsett, of this Department, gives a few 

 notes on this moth and its injuries to the leaves of violets, illustrated 

 with a half-tone reproduction of a photograph of the insect, natural 

 size, in its different stages and its work. 



It should be added that Mr. Dorsett met with this insect also at 

 Poughkeepsie and Highlands, N. Y. , and he informs the writer that it 

 was troublesome in greenhouses there and elsewhere along the Hudson 

 River valley. 



