December, ’20] 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES 
493 
An Insect Supposed to Breed in Corn. During the past few months much 
interest has been shown in the European corn borer, Pyrausta nubilalis. Native 
insects affecting corn are also of interest. In view of this fact the writer wishes to call 
attention to an insect, which for years has been supposed to breed in corn. It is 
quite, possible, as the writer will attempt to prove, that the describer of the insect was 
in error as to its host plant or he would not have given it the name of Achatodes zece. 
In the latter half of May the writer collected several lepidopterous larvae from the 
stems of elder. These larvae resembled the true cornstalk borer, Diatraea zeacollela , 
so much, that the specimens were forwarded to Mr. August Busck for determination. 
Mr. Busck determined them as Achatodes zece stating that their host plants were 
strawberry and corn. 
Later the writer asked Dr. F. H. Chittenden if he knew anything about the host 
plants of this insect. Dr. Chittenden wrote the writer a rather detailed account, 
which is given here verbatim: “Being interested in stalk borers that affect truck 
crops, I am able to give you valuable information in regard to Achatodes zece Harris. 
“This is one of the cases in which Dr. Harris was wrong. This species which was 
described in Harris’ Treatise feeds exclusively, so far as records go, in the stems of 
elder ( Sambucus sp.) and any other records of its injuring corn and strawberry are, 
in my opinion, incorrect. The true corn and strawberry culprit is Papaipema nitela 
or nebris; in other words, the species mentioned by Harris in 'Insects Injurious to 
Vegetation,’ Flint Edition, 1862, pp. 438-440, refers to both species. The moth 
figured on Plate 7, figure 9, is Achatodes zece and the larva figured on page 440 is 
Papaipema nebris. ” 
Larvae of this species were fairly common in the stems of elder at Tullulah, La., 
during the last of May and the first of June. 
Marion R. Smith. 
A Note on Migration of Larvae of the House-Fly. Along a stretch of some 150 
feet of road in Wellington, Kansas, there is found a strip of grass about two feet wide 
along one side of which a cement sidewalk runs and along the other a cement curb 
raised perhaps eight inches above the macadamized road with which it is connected. 
The whole is gently sloping to the west. 
About the 15th of May, 1917, this grass area as well as a plot of some two acres 
adjoining the sidewalk was covered with a thick layer of barnyard manure which 
had probably been stacked for some time. 
A few days later, about 6.00 o’clock in the morning, in passing by this stretch of 
road, large numbers of the larvae of the house-fly, Musca domestica, were observed 
on the sidewalk and in the gutter adjoining the manured strip. They were only 
fairly numerous on the sidewalk, but in the gutter they lay in a white band extending 
the whole length of the manured space, perhaps eight inches wide and towards the 
curb several larvae deep. 
This whole seething mass was working down the street towards the west and were 
found to be entering a sewage manhole which adjoined the west end of the manured 
area. 
By noon this date, practically all the larvae had disappeared. 
Considering that the majority of the larvae had entered the manhole, they had 
migrated from one to 150 feet. And they had preferred migrating this distance in 
search of soil in which to pupate rather than enter the soil beneath the manure. 
George W. Barber, 
Scientific Assistant, Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Department of Agriculture . 
