23 
hairs and a marginal crown of shorter spine-like processes, each 
of which ends in a fine, curved, hair-like lash. (Described from 
two specimens.) 
Pupa.—The pupa is 3.5 to 4 mm, in length. It is pale yel¬ 
lowish in color, naked, and furnished with scattered stiff hairs 
of considerable length. The wing-pads, antennae, and legs are 
folded obliquely over the ventral surface. The abdomen ends in 
a pair of rather long, tapering, brown spines, which are very 
thick at the base. In the older specimen the black eyes and 
dusky marking of the wing-covers show through the thin pupal 
skin. (Described from two specimens.) 
Imago. (Plate III., Fig. 8.)—Length 3-4.5 mm. Elongate oval 
in shape, with a shining surface. Color very variable, ranging 
from almost black to entirely pale brownish, the pale variety 
; being the common form in Illinois. The head is dull rufous, with 
j a few punctures; antenna black. The thorax is pale, with a few 
faint punctures on the surface, a distinct posterior transverse 
impression, not limited at the ends. 
The legs are dull reddish or testaceous, the hind legs fitted 
for leaping. The wing covers are finely densely punctured, not 
striate, and each has a whitish longitudinal stripe on the middle, 
extending nearly to the apex. These stripes are visible on even 
the palest specimens. The variet}^ blanda has the under side of 
the body and the sides of the thorax narrowly piceous. 
The preceding descriptions of larva and pupa were drawn up 
by an assistant, Mr. John Marten, from the office specimens, not 
accessible as I write. 
The Banded Ips. 
(Ips fasciatus, Oliv.) 
(Plate IV., Fig. 3-5.) 
Among the insects attacking the kernel in the earth, is the 
hitherto undescribed larva* of a beetle, Ips fasciatus , which in 
the adult state is abundant everywhere, feeding upon a great 
variety of vegetable substances, fresh or in a state of decay. 
The adult beetle has long been known as occasionally and 
slightly injurious to corn in the ear; but the fact that the 
larva may infest seed corn after planting, although first noted 
by us in 1883, has not hitherto been published. 
My first observation to this effect was made at Normal, Ill., 
June 18 of the above year. In a field of corn a part of which 
> had been in pasture for fifteen years preceding, while the re¬ 
mainder had grown turnips the year before — which, however, 
had not been removed from the ground—large numbers of these 
larvse were found in and about the seed kernels.! From the 
* Although the larva of ihis beetle was rudely figured many years ago (Packard’s Guide 
to the Study of Insects, p. 444), the Immature stages of the species have not anywhere been 
described. 
+ The field had been twice planted because of a partial failure of the first seed, and the 
kernels' of both plantings were infested. 
