THE LESSEE CORN STALK-BORER. 3 
and September, but the account does not indicate that the species 
caused damage in the State at that time. 
In 1905, as reported in the Yearbook of the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture for that year (25), sorghum, cowpeas, and crab- 
grass were totally destroyed in some fields near Columbia, S. C, and re- 
ports of damage were received from other localities in South Carolina 
and Georgia. On November 4, 1915, the junior author also found at 
Nashville, Tenn., a small wheat plant killed by a larva which was 
nearly full grown and which entirely filled the burrow that it had 
excavated in the stem. 
SYSTEMATIC HISTORY AND SYNONYMY. 
The lesser corn stalk-borer was first described by Zeller (1) from 
Brazil, Uruguay (Montevideo), and Colombia, South America, and a 
single female from " Carolina," U. S. A. In this article, aside from 
the specific description, Zeller describes three unnamed varieties, 
basing his descriptions almost entirely on color variations. No further 
notes are given in this account except from the localities listed. Four 
years later Blanch ard (2) redescribed the species under the name 
Klasmopalpus angustellus, erecting for its reception the genus Elas- 
mopalpus, which recently has been accepted as the proper position 
for the species. Not until two decades later is there a further refer- 
ence to the species in the literature, when Zeller (3), in an article 
dealing with some North American moths, adds somewhat to our 
knowledge of its seasonal and geographical distribution, recording 
it from Brazil and Colombia, in South America, and "Carolina" and 
Texas, in the United States. At the latter place three females were 
taken, one on July 15 and the other two a month later. He also adds 
the descriptions of two varieties, incautella and tartarella, based on 
color variations. Each of these varieties was described from a single 
specimen, and both were taken at the same place and on the same 
date. The species as a whole is extremely variable and Zeller himself 
in a later publication (7) placed incautella as a synonym of lignosella 
though still retaining tartarella as a valid variety. Another variety, 
designated as " variety B, n was described by Zeller (4) from material 
collected at Valparaiso, Chile. In 1875, Berg (5), using material 
taken in Patagonia and elsewhere in southern South America, supple- 
mented Blanchard's description of E. angustellus , going into detail, 
particularly in describing the venation, and two years later, in a 
further paper on Patagonian insects (6) , came to the conclusion that the 
species he had been considering Blanchard's angustellus was Zeller's 
lignosella. Since both the species are genotypes, the reduction of 
angustellus to a synonym of lignosella made Elasmopalpus a synonym 
of Pempelia, where it remained until revived by Hulst in 1890 (13) for 
this same species. In 1881 Zeller (7) gave some notes on the amount 
