June, '20] 
SATTERTHWAIT: HABITS OF CALENDRA PERTINAX 
281 
(Typha latifolia L.) and Calamus or sweet flag (Acorns calamus L.), 
deserves closer attention than it has had for a decade or two. Its 
economic prominence is based on its destruction to corn. The species 
was described by Olivier in 1807. During the century following, 
various records of heavy corn losses were connected with this name 
until, in 1905, Dr. F. H. Chittenden recorded the fact that one speci¬ 
men that was reared about 35 years earlier had been incorrectly deter¬ 
mined as C. pertinax. This specimen had been taken under circum¬ 
stances which made this species appear to be the offender involved in 
heavy corn losses in an important agricultural area over a period of 
many years. With Calendra pertinax separated from that line of eco¬ 
nomic records, a certain distrust creeps in concerning other records, even 
though the determination of the insect may have been correctly made. 
As for distribution, since the confusion of this insect with C. robustus 
Horn and C. maidis Chttn. has been eliminated, we may consider dis¬ 
tribution summaries published by Dr. Chittenden in 1905 and by 
others since that date, correct, so far as known at the date of publication. 
Dr. Chittenden in 1905 recognized the distribution of C. pertinax as 
extending from New York City to Utah, and south as far as Washing¬ 
ton, D. C., south of which point the typical form did not appear to 
have been taken. From Louisiana, Texas and Kansas, and possibly 
Arizona, he had a different form, for which he erected the new varietal 
name australis , and from California and Nevada, another form which 
he called the variety typhoe. Messrs. Blatchley and Leng, in “Rhyn- 
chophora of the North Eastern United States,” 1914, stated that C. 
pertinax occurs in Northern Indiana, about New York City, through¬ 
out New Jersey and at Orlando, Florida, with the range from New 
England and Canada to Michigan and Utah, and south to Florida. 
The writer has taken the species at Athens and West LaFayette, 
Indiana, and at Advance, Charleston, Sulphur Springs and Webster 
Groves, Missouri, and has been privileged to include in his studies, 
material from Hagerstown, Maryland, through the kindness of Mr. C. 
M. Packard, from Flushing, New York, through the generous coop¬ 
eration of Mr. E. L. Bell throughout the season of 1919, and through 
the kindness of Mr. J. H. Jenkins and of Dr. J. L. Cook, of Advance, 
Missouri. This opportunity is taken to thank also the members of 
the staff, Messrs. H. R. Painter, R. A. Blanchard, C. Bagby and B. S. 
Reid for their valued assistance in the work, and Mr. W. R. Walton 
for helpful criticism of the manuscript. Taking each locality sepa¬ 
rately, we will consider first, 
The Situation at Flushing, New York 
While making a study of Sphida obliqua Walk., Mr. E. L. Bell, of 
Flushing, N. Y., made an incidental report on Calendra pertinax to 
