406 
Report of this Department for 1884 (pp. 301-308). Iu the West Ph. 
pusilla and albionica* also do some damage. 
None of the injurious species are restricted to any one food-plant, but 
attack freely all sorts of cruciferous vegetables, both cultivated and 
wild. As an example of food-habit it might be mentioned that Ph. vit- 
tata infests alike cabbage, turnip, radish, horse-radish, cresses, mustard, 
shepherd's purse, charlock, Lepidium, Matthiola, and Hesperis, and has 
even been said to attack the strawberry. 
Ph. nemorum is in its larval state a leaf- miner, as is also sinuata, but 
vittata is subterranean in habit, and it would seem probable from the 
fact that the larval history of armoracice is unknown that it belongs to 
the latter class and breeds in the roots of its food-plants. 
As has been said, and as may readily be seen by reference to the 
accompanying illustration (Fig. 47), Ph. armoracice is not likely to be 
confused with any other species of the genus. It is somewhat larger 
and broader than any American Phyllotreta. In form it is oval and 
strongly convex, and black in color. The first three antennal joints, 
the tips of the four anterior femora, the tibise and tarsi are reddish 
yellow. The elytra is very light yellowish or cream color, nearly white, 
with a very thin, black lateral margin and a broader sutural stripe, 
which is broadest at the middle and constricted at each end and 
extends from the base of the thorax to the tip of the elytra, where it 
joins the lateral line. The front is very finely, and the prothorax and 
elytra densely, punctate. In my specimens there is a sensitive pore 
from which proceeds a seta, located on the lateral margin just behind 
the anterior angle. In the male the fourth antennal joint is slightly 
thickened and longer than the fifth 5 in the female the fourth and fifth 
joints are equal. In length this species measures from 3 to 3.5 mm , 
A NEW WHEAT PEST. 
(Sciara tritici n. sp.) 
By D. W. Coquillett. 
From observations made both in this country and in Europe it 
appears that the larvse of the different species of Sciara feed principally 
upon vegetable matter in a greater or less state of decay, their favorite 
haunts being beneath the loose dead bark of various kinds of trees, in 
the deserted burrows of wood-boring larvre, in decaying wood, par- 
tially decayed galls, under excrements, in mushrooms, etc. In this 
country a single species is known to infest apples previously attacked 
by the larvae of the Codling moth, and by burrowing through the par 
tially decayed portion, to thereby hasten the decomposition of the more 
*Ph. albionica has been very generally confused in literature with pusilla, which 
was not separated as a distinct species until 1889. The latter is the commoner 
species. 
