Apr. 15, 1925 
Larvie Resembling the Corn Borer 
789 
larvae pupating the first week and 
throughout the month of June and 
early July. Young larvae were found 
as early as June 28 in Bidens plants. 
The majority of the larvae in the field 
were full grown the third week in 
September, 1921. The larvae remain 
over the winter in their food plants. 
The character of the injury to Bidens 
by Epiblema coincides to a consider¬ 
able degree with that caused by the 
European corn borer to the same weed. 
The diameter of the tunnels or bur¬ 
rows in the plant is smaller, how¬ 
ever, and the frass extruded therefrom 
is never in so large a quantity, nor 
does it adhere to the plant beneath the 
entrance to the burrows, usually col¬ 
lecting on the soil at the base of the 
plant in small cone-shaped heaps. 
The yellowish-white caterpillars (pb 
1, A) bear a superficial likeness to the 
immature stages of the European corn 
borer. Since both species infest Bidens 
and since the larvae of the two bear 
prominent dark-colored pinacula, con¬ 
fusion of the species is possible. On 
close examination of the larvae, how¬ 
ever, one readily sees that the struc¬ 
tural characters are different. The 
single ranked crochets on the pseudo¬ 
pods are arranged on the planta in a 
completed circle, whereas those of the 
Pyraustinae are of three ranks and are 
arranged in an imperfect circle or im¬ 
perfect ellipse, sometimes referred to as 
a penellipse with the opening to the 
horseshoe outermost. This olethreu- 
tid bears three setae on the prespiracu- 
lar pinaculum, whereas pyralid and 
noctuid larvae bear only two setae on 
this structure. There is no pigmented 
band or stripe on the median dorsal 
plane of the larvae of Epiblema scud- 
deriana. Other less evident differ¬ 
ences exist, such as the shape of the 
mandible, the structure of the maxillae, 
and the setal arrangement on the head 
capsule. 
EPIBLEMA STRENUANA WALKER 
Grapholita strenuana Walk., 1863, Cat. Lepidop 
Het. Brit. Mus., 28: 383. 
Grapholita exvagana Walk., 1863, Cat. Lepidop. 
Het. Brit. Mus., 28: 383. 
Steganoptycha flavocellana Clemens, 1865, Proc. 
Ent. Soc. Phila., 5: 138. 
Grapholitha subversana Zeller, 1875, Verh. Zool.- 
Bot. Ges. Wien 25: 318. 
Paedisca strenuana Walk., Wals., 1879, Ulus. 
Lepidop. Het. Brit. Mus., 4: 52; 1884, Trans. 
Ent. Soc. London, 1884:140. 
Eucosma strenuana Walk., Fernald, 1902, Dyar, 
List N. Amer. Lepidop., No. 5129; Barnes 
and McDunnough, 1917, Check List Lepidop. 
Bor. Amer., No. 6981. 
Eucosma minutana Kearfott, 1905, Proc. TJ. S. 
Nat. Mus. 28:356; Barnes and McDunnough, 
1917, Check List Lepidop. Bor. Amer., No. 
6982. 
1997S—25t-7 
Eucosma antaxia Meyrick, 1920, Exot. Micro- 
lepidop. 2 (11): 344. 
Epiblema strenuana Walk., Heinrich, 1923, U. 
S. Nat. Mus. Bui. 123: 140, figs. 257, 258. 
The larve of Epiblema strenuana (the 
ragweed borer) has been taken only 
from Anbrosia artemisiaefolia L. (rag¬ 
weed) { 14 , p. 141)‘ Apparently it is 
not common in eastern Massachusetts. 
It differs from the previous species of 
Epiblema in having the pinacula on 
the thorax and abdominal segments 
feebly pigmented; the setae are pale 
yellow; the thoracic and anal shields 
pale; the head light brown in lieu of 
black. It can be distinguished from 
the European corn borer and other 
pyralids by the characters enumerated 
under scudderiana. 
FAMILY OECOPHORIDAE 
DEPRESS ARIA HERACLIANA DE GEER 
Phalaena heracliana De Geer, 1771, Mem. Ins. 
2: 407. 
Phalaena heraclei Retz., 1783, De Geer, Gen. et 
Spec. Ins., p. 45. 
Pyralis umbellana Fab., 1794, Ent. Syst., pt. 2, 
3: 286. 
Haemylis pastinacella Dupon., 1836, Hist. Nat. 
8 : 153. 
Haemylis umbellella Zett., 1840, Ins. Lapp., p. 
999. 
Depressaria ontariella Bethune, 1869, Canad. 
Ent. 2: 3. 
Depressaria heracliana De Geer, Dyar, 1902, 
List N. Amer. Lepidop., No. 5889; Busck, 
1902, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 24: 748; Barnes 
and McDunnough, 1917, Check List Lepidop. 
Bor. Amer., No. 1478. 
Depressaria heracliana (the parsnip 
webworm) is a European species im¬ 
ported into this country probably in 
the late sixties of the last century." It 
was, at any rate, first noticed in 1873 as 
of economic importance, and has since 
distributed itself over the northern por¬ 
tions of the United States, west and 
south to the State of Mississippi and in 
Canada. It has been named the pars¬ 
nip webworm from the habit which 
the larva possesses of webbing up the 
flower and seed heads of the parsnip. 
The insect breeds on wild carrot and 
probably on other umbelliferous plants. 
The larvae (pi. 1, E) of this species 
were observed in 1921 at Cliftondale, 
Mass. They were found living in 
masses and feeding on the flower heads 
of parsnip, which they had webbed to¬ 
gether with strands of silk. In time 
this nestlike structure becomes dirty 
and foul from the collection of excreta. 
When the larvae were one-half to three- 
fourths grown, they were observed 
gradually to desert their feeding quar¬ 
ters externally and enter the parsnip 
stalk, although some remained in the 
original web and pupated therein. The 
majority, however, tunneled through 
the cortex and thin white medulla of the 
