206 
IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
compared our specimens with three specimens of physalivorella 
in the National museum, and states, “these are very distinct 
from your specimen.” “ The latter agrees quite well with G. 
quercifoliella, but may be a distinct species.” 
From this it seems most probable that this insect is unde- 
scribed, but we prefer to leave the technical description to 
some specialist in this group of delicate and inetresting moths. 
ON THE EARLY STAGES OP THE IMBRICATED SNOUT BEETLE. 
{Epicaerus imbricatus Say.) 
While this species has been recognized as a pest since its 
first economic treatment by Walsh in 1863, our knowledge of 
its life history has remained as meagre as at that time, nothing 
being known as to its early stages, except the record of egg 
laying by Professor Forbes. 
This led us, on receiving specimens of the beetle with the 
report of their in j ary to strawberry plants, to attempt their 
breeding upon this food plant. While we did not succeed in 
tracing the full history of the species, the securing of eggs and 
the partial development of the larvse, and the possibility that 
this clue may assist in the further elucidation of its history is 
our excuse for presenting this fragmentary account. 
On May 14, 1895, the adulis were placed on a strawberry 
plant having three or four open leaves and a number of small 
berries. They immediately crawled up the stems and soon 
began feeding upon the leaves, cutting a crescent correspond- 
ing to a line described by the end of the snout. The crescent 
was apparently quite uniform but soon became irregular when 
the beetle had to move in order to reach the tissue; so in 
reality there is no regularity in devouring the leaf and finally 
nothing is left but the veins and a few angular fragments of 
leaves. By the following day the effect on the leaves was 
quite apparent, the beetles eating rapidly, and by the 20th the 
leaves were ail devoured except a few dry, curled pieces and 
the stems. They did not attack the berries, but in some cases 
ate the sepals at the base. 
The beetles began pairing the first day and continued for 
five or six days. No eggs were observed till the 21st when a 
number of small, white, glistening eggs were found under a 
fold of a leaf and as no folded or dry leaves had been left on 
the plant these eggs had certainly been deposited by the 
Epicaerus. On the 22d another leaf containing eggs was found 
