28 



ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



plague is the cause of the popular idea of frosted heather. 

 Upon a careful examination of the grub I became satisfied 

 that it belonged to a species of phytophagous beetle, and even 

 decided upon the family (Galemcidce) to which it belonged, but 

 with such scanty material could proceed no further. How- 

 ever, a few days afterwards the same gentleman very kindly 

 sent me three large patches cut from the moor, two of them 

 badly frosted and the third unaffected. From the two 

 infested pieces I picked every day for the space of a week or 

 so freshly emerged specimens of a beetle which I identified as 

 Lochui(za suturalis, Thomson ; and as a vast number of 

 examples of this insect in all stages between that of full- 

 grown larva and perfect insect were found buried amongst 

 the roots of the heather, I was enabled satisfactorily to refer 

 the damage to this species. As the life-history of the beetle 

 does not appear to have been hitherto observed, so far as I 

 can ascertain, I have thought it desirable to draw attention 

 to it. Unfortunately, it was too late in the season to see any- 

 thing of younger larvae, so that all I can do at present is to 

 furnish a short description of the full-grown larva and the 

 subsequent stages. Fig. I shows a full-grown larva seen in 

 profile and magnified. It is about five millimetres long, of a 

 dirty white colour, with black head and legs. The surface is 



Larva, pupa, and imago of Lochmaa suturalis, Thomson. 



studded with small black tubercles, arranged in a double 

 transverse row in each segment, and the segments themselves 

 are transversely furrowed or wrinkled on the dorsal surface. 

 Each tubercle is tipped with a fine bristle of a pale colour, 

 while the black, shining head is furnished with similar bristles. 

 The pupa as seen from beneath is represented in Fig 2, and 

 the characteristic form of a phytophagous beetle is here 



