148 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



spircpce, in which the dark sutural stripe is present. On alder, I had 



found the handsome chestnut-crimson Chrysomela abundant, and 



had taken some fifty specimens: they are apparently a very robust 

 form of Chrysomela philadelphica, as the\- lack the dark sutural 

 stripe, and their other markings correspond. {Chrysomela phila- 

 delphica \ar. — shall we say alni or Hesperiditm?). While hunting 

 for this insect on the fringe of alders beside the municipal ditch, I 

 disco\ered yet another Chrysomela and succeeded in making 

 about fifteen captures; it was almost as large as the last, but the 

 ground colour was white to pale cream, with heavih'-marked and 

 united sutural and sub-sutural lines; in short, it was Chrysomela 

 scalaris, with a Ncry slight difference — the apical or third pair of 

 spurs were broken away from the sutural line and appeared as 

 two detached spots; and the middle pair of spurs also tended to 

 be irregular and broken. The normal form of scalaris, I had found 

 once in great abundance in the larval stage on basswood near the 

 Rideau Ferry anrl in the six or eight beetles that I reared through 

 the pupal state, I remarked the same variation in the ladder-like 

 series of projections to which the species owes its name. Each of 

 these forms was abundantly distinct from all the others; I never 

 saw any sign of interbreeding; each colony, each species and 

 \ariety appeared to keep to itself. On the alders in this swamp 

 there were, besides, thousands of Lina inter rupta (lappotiica); 

 these were in all stages of larvce, piipce and imagines. In spite of 

 its multitudes, and the short pupal inter\al between voracious 

 grub and de\ouring beetle, the damage done to alder foliage seems 

 trivial, due partly to the insect's small size and partly to the abund- 

 ance of its food plant. Near the edge of the clearing I took two 

 specimens of Lina scripta, feeding on willow; this beetle I ha\e 

 never found on any other plant than willow; those near Peter- 

 borough were all of the normal form, but often one or other of 

 two varieties are to be found: in both of these the creamy ground- 

 color of the elytra is replaced by a light-brown, and the elongated 

 elytral spots are larger and only separated by narrow borders of 

 the ground colour; in one variety these elongated spots are black; 

 in the other, dark-brown; the former of these was sent me from 

 Montreal, and I do not know its food plant; the other I found in 

 .abundance near Lindsay one season, feeding on willow. There 



