320 



ent, and on each side of the shining black lower border of facial 

 depression there is a velvet black drop-like marking, which is drawn 

 out into a point above. The arista and antennae are more blackish, with 

 the third antennal joint brown. The dorsum only of segments 1 to 3 

 of abdomen is narrowly purplish black, the side of the abdomen and 

 all of last segment being covered with the whitish bloom and circular 

 purplish black spots. 



PMjK/rJMm.— Length, 23.5™™ to 25™™ ; greatest width, 12'"™ to 13™™. Much the gen- 

 eral form of the larva, black in color, consisting simply of the dried and very hard- 

 ened larval skin, stouter in middle and posteriorly, in one specimen nearly as stout 

 anteriorly as posteriorly, widest and thickest on sixth segment. Inferior surface 

 almost straight from a side view, the upper surface showing a nearly perfect arc of 

 a circle in outline. Surface roughened from the spur-like plates of the larval integ- 

 ument, which are in some places even sj)ine-like. 



In both cases the fly issued by the dorsum of first three segments 

 becoming i)erfectly detached in a single piece or cap. This cap bears 

 at its anterior end two prominent pale-colored short but column-like 

 tubercles i:>rojecting from the integument, apically truncate and quite 

 removed from each other, apparently representing the larval antenna?. 

 Puparium lined inside with thin white silken membrane. 



THE SUGAR-BEET WEB-WORM. 



(Loxostege sticticaUs L.) 



In our Annual Eeport for 1892, just published, we devoted some 

 space to the consideration of a new enemy to the Sugar Beet, which is 

 also mentioned by Mr. Lawrence Bruner, on page 37 of Bulletin 30, Di- 

 vision of Entomology, which 

 is also just published. It 

 also receives brief treatment 

 on pages 51-53 of Bulletin 

 Iso. 36 of the Division of 

 Chemistry, of this Depart- 

 ment, and our article in the 

 Annual Eeport is reprinted 

 from advance sheets on 

 pages 68-70 of the same bul- 

 letin. This insect, a Py- 

 ralid moth — Loxostege stic- 

 ticaUs — appeared in great 

 numbers the third week in 

 July in certain sugar-beet 

 plantations in the State of 

 Nebraska. Its larvse partially defoliated the crop, transforming under 

 ground in long, silken tubes. A second brood appeared a month later 

 and there are possibly three annual generations. The best remedy 



Fig. i2.~Loxo8tege niicticalis: adult, enlarged (after Kiley). 



