79 
were bred by tlie writer in July, 18<.>7, from Ijirvif Ibinid in kutow, 
tortuous iniiiCwS iu the leaves of the above-mentioned i)l;iiit. 
lieared in 181)4: by ^Ir. W. E. Ihitton, New Haven, Comi., IVom hirva'- 
niinin<;- tlie leaves of the eohnnbine. 
rhilUmujza vlwiisanihvmi Kowarz. — Issued J)eeend)i;r M) and ;>1, 1880, 
and January 5, (>, 7, and 10, 1887, from larva' nunin<jf the leaves of the 
cultivated ehrysanthennim, received l)ecend)er.'I(), from Charles Hender- 
son, of Xew York; the larva' pupate within their mines. 
Issued March 5, 1890, from larva' mining the leavers of the Marguerite 
daisy, received February 28, from James Kead, Trvington, N. Y. Also 
]March 31 and April 2 and 3, 181)0, from larva', mining the leaves of the 
above-mentioned plant, received March 27, from J. II. Ives, Danbury, 
Conn. ; and April 5, 7, 8, 10, and 14, 1890, from leaves of the feverfew, 
received April 3, from the same person. 
Fliytomyza ohscurella Fall. — Eeared by the writer May 8, 1887, from 
larvae found April 19, in long, tortuous mines iu the leaves oi Lnpunis 
albicaulus at Los Angeles, Cal. 
THE TOBACCO FLEA-BEETLE. 
{I'.'pitHx parvuJa Fab. ) 
By F. H. ClIlTTENDEX. 
LARVAL HABITS OF THE (lENUS. 
Until within a year the larval habits of our flea-beetles of the genus 
Ex)itrix were unknown, a very general imi:>ression prevailing that the 
larvie were leaf-miners. Writers on economic entomology have fos- 
tered this belief, and very recently one has made the positive statement 
that the larva of the common cucumber tlea-beetle {Epitrix cucumeris 
Harr.) ''is a miner, feeding within the substance of the leaves of the 
infested plants." It remained for Messrs. F. 0. Stewart and F. A. Sir- 
rine to discover the true larval habit of the genus, namely, that it is 
subterranean, a hypothesis that had previously been entertained by 
Mr. E. A. Schwarz and the writer from the fact that the larvae were not 
to be found in the leaves or stems. On this head Mr. Schwarz wrote of 
cucumeris (Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., Yol. II, p. 184) : '' Its true food jdant 
will, no doubt, prove to be one of the Solauaceji^, and the larva is prob- 
ably a root-feeder." Messrs. Stewart and Sirrine found the larva of this 
sx^ecies boring into the tubers, roots, and rootstalks of potato, this work 
resulting m th« formation of " slivers" or "i)imples" as has been nar- 
rated in Bulletin 113 of the XewY^ork Agricultural Experiment Station 
and the Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Sciences for 1800 (pp. 
170-172). Potatoes so affected sold for as much as 5 cents a bushel 
lower than the regular market x^'ice. 
