82 



tMng to say of the destructive habits of the larvae of these species, thi^ 

 seems to be the appropriate place to present these notes. 



Melittia ceto West. — Concerning this species, in view of the facts cited 

 I said in the former paper : ''It seems in view of the facts at hand that 

 in central Ohio and south it is double-brooded." In the May number 

 of the Canadian Entomologist Prof. J. B. Smith has an interesting note 

 throwing light upon this question ; his quotation from the manuscript 

 drawings by Abbot clearly prove that in Georgia it has two annual 

 broods. He also cites the facts of his own observation in New Jersey, 

 and expresses his disagreement with my inference for the latitude of 

 central Ohio. He may be right j I am simply waiting to see. I still 

 think there is something in its life-history not yet explained. 



Larvse put into breeding cages in September last gave imagos in 

 May and June. Larvae were found destroying the squash plants early 

 in July; by the 15th to 20th I transferred the plants to breeding cages 

 with larvae of different sizes. These shall be carefully watched and the 

 result reported.* 



Sciapteron tricincta Harris. — This species was reared by me several 

 years since at Buffalo, N. Y., from enlargements of the branches and 

 stems of Fopulus candicans and Salix caused by the larvae of Saperda 

 mcesta and Saperda concolor. The present season I have found it at Col- 

 umbus, with similar habits, in the stems of the willow injured and en- 

 larged by the larva of iS'. concolor. The beetles appeared from the mid- 

 dle of May to the middle of June; the female gnaws deeply through 

 the bark into the wood, generally near a branch, and places an egg at 

 the bottom of each pit ; the larva is soon burrowing under the bark and 

 into the wood; there are often several at the same point. The ^ge- 

 rians appear later, in June and Jul}^, and place their eggs in the excres- 

 cences caused by the boring young of the beetle. I have not yet found 

 LQstances in which it was clearly apparent that the young Sciapteron 



* Note. August 8. — By August 1 i few larvae had. left the stems and entered the 

 ground; by the 8th, the day of last examination, many had done so; small ones- 

 are comparatively few. 



Among the smaller ones there was an abundance of that second form described by 

 Prof. Scudder in Psyche, vol. iv, p. 303. Some of these were isolated, and after a 

 few days they molted, giving the typical form. This seems to prove that there is 

 but one species. 



It may be interesting to note that these larvae will feed in the stems and roots of 

 JEcMnocysfis lohata; also in the fruit of the Muskmelon. I have not watched them 

 to maturity in either. 



August 27. — On returning home, August 25, I found that three imagos had emerged 

 in the vivaria from larvse transferred from the field between July 15 and August 1; 

 my son had noted the dates of appearance as follows : One each on the 20th, 21st, 

 and 23d; since then two more have come out, and seven fresh imagos have been 

 captured in the field. These facts I consider sufficient to prove that in central OhiO' 

 there may be a second brood. 



