

64 



flattened on the extreme ventral surface. The color is milk white, the 

 head being light brown and the mandibles dark brown, nearly black. 

 The first thoracic segment is marked with a light } r ellow transverse 

 chitinous patch resembling the cervical shield of many caterpillars. 

 The head is nearly circular in outline, and is ornamented by an inverted 

 Y mark. The mandibles are short and strong, concave on the inner 

 surface, and bidentate at the tips. The leg pads are moderately promi- 

 nent, and rather sparsely covered with short yellow bristles. With 

 the assistance of the figure a more detailed description may be dis- 

 pensed with. Full descriptions both of larva and pupa have been 

 published by Mr. Webster in his article in Entomologica Americana 

 (Vol. V, p. 14). 



The pupa. — The pupa shown in the illustration at e in profile is of the 

 same white color as the larva. It is somewhat remarkable on account 

 of the row of retrorse spines on the back of each abdominal segment. 

 The first or cephalic row consists of shorter and finer spines, and the 

 last row of only four, in pairs on each side of the middle (see fig. 15, f). 

 The terminal segment ends in two spinelike processes on the ventral 

 side. The length is 14 to 15 mm. 



The pupa cells are broad and ample, varying somewhat in length 

 from two to three or four times the length of the pupa itself. Cells 

 before the writer measure from 5 to 7 mm. in width and from 25 to 

 40 mm. in length. By means of the rows of spines on its back the pupa 

 is enabled to work its way readily up and down from one end of its cell 

 to the other. 



The majority of the cells examined were constructed just beneath 

 the surface of the earth, the top of the cell lying level with the earth's 

 surface. Cells often, therefore, extend into the roots and appear to be 

 deepest where the plants are short and dry, and dry up early. No 

 special point appears to be selected by the larva for gnawing away an 

 exit place for the imago, but the stem is so weakened near the bottom 

 of the cell that it breaks at this point if pulled, and it doubtless cracks 

 and breaks in time with the drying of the plant, so that the beetle 

 when fully matured and ready for exit has no difficulty in effecting its 

 escape. 



BIOLOGIC LITERATURE. 



For so common an insect as is this curculio, published accounts bear- 

 ing on its habits and life history are few in number. 



The first notice of its food habits is that given by Townend Glover 

 in the Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for the year 1865 

 (1866, p. 90). Reference is there made to the beetle having been 

 observed "burrowing into the footstalk of the rhubarb or pie plant and 

 then depositing a single egg in each hole." No larva? were reared, bat 

 the opinion was expressed "that if the yellow decaying leaves of the 



