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JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 13 
the New York Entomological Society, revealing a different mode of 
wintering than has been observed by the writer. Upon request for 
data and infested host plants, Mr. Bell responded very generously and 
has supplied the writer with numerous collections of stalks of the 
common cat-tail (Typha latifolia L.) at representative intervals 
throughout the year, with pertinent notes on water levels in relation 
to the plants submitted. 
In his letter of April 17, 1919, Mr. Bell wrote in part as follows: 
“The specimens that I collected were taken this year on March 1 and 
8, except one adult specimen taken on February 22, and included one 
larva, several pupae in different stages, and adults. So it would seem 
that this species does not hibernate in adult form, but rather pupation 
occurs in the late fall or winter, and the adults emerge in the spring. 
Most of the specimens were collected in a low part of the swamp that 
is always flooded in the winter and spring, and at the time they were 
collected, their position in the stalk was at least a foot under the 
water, but they did not seem to be in any way harmed by it. They 
seemed to run somewhat to colonies, as in some places every stalk 
contained from one to four beetles or pupae and in other places close by 
but an occasional specimen or none would be found.” 
Dr. S. A. Forbes, in his Eleventh Report, pages 17 and 18, stated 
that Dr. Kellicott repeatedly reared this species to the imago in July 
and August from larvae and pupae found in New York in the common 
cat-tail; and that Professor Parrot, relating to Nebraska insects, 
assumed that C. pertinax wintered over in the pupa stage, as he had 
received some specimens in May, 1898, some of which had the peculiar 
pinkish color characteristic of beetles just emerged from the pupa. 
This Nebraska observation appears to agree well with Mr. Bell’s New 
York observations this spring. Dr. Kellicott’s observation agrees well 
with Mr. Bell’s observations and collections this summer, and with the 
writer’s observations in Indiana and Missouri. 
Under date of April 28, Mr. Bell wrote that they had had several 
days of unprecedentedly cold weather just preceding April 26, when he 
collected a number of cat-tail stalks which he believed contained pupae 
and adults from a portion of the swamp where the water was several 
inches more than knee-deep, the swamp being very full of water from 
recent heavy rains. He examined cat-tail stalks that grew on the edge 
of the swamp where it was drier and found some stalks that had con¬ 
tained C. pertinax, but no billbugs were present in them. 
This collection of April 26 was received April 30. There were 15 
stalks in the collection, each stalk and root crown and the only piece of 
rhizome in the collection showing larval work. There were 25 larval 
excavations, 20 or 21 containing exuviae, 2 dead larvae, 6 dead pupae and 
