308 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [J u ty> >I1[ 



the same year. Chrysomela staphylea should be looked for 

 elsewhere in eastern Canada. If the beetle proves to be restrict- 

 ed to a limited area about Halifax, it will be evident that it 

 is an importation. On the other hand, wide distribution will 

 indicate that the species is indigenous. 



The beetle is one that would not be diffused rapidly, as it 

 is sluggish in habits and incapable of flight. Although pro- 

 vided with wings, these are reduced in size and not functional. 

 They are narrow, corneous pads, no longer than the elytra, 

 and lie under these without folding. Several specimens that 

 I examined, from both sides of the Atlantic, all showed the 

 same condition. About the only chance for rapid distribution 

 of such an insect would be along some river, where the 

 hibernated beetles would be carried down stream by the spring 

 floods ; but this cannot operate in the case of a species which 

 has become established at the seaboard. 



Although Chrysomela staphylea is a common species in 

 Europe, very little appears to be known of its habits. Rosen- 

 hauer 2 and Buddeberg 3 have bred the beetle and described 

 the early stages. Both obtained their larvae from eggs feid by 

 captive females. Rosenhauer obtained eggs in September, and 

 again in March from the hibernated beetles. The eggs laid 

 in the fall did not hatch until the following spring 4 , a rather 

 remarkable occurrence in a chrysomelid. We can hardly im- 

 agine the eggs surviving the rigorous winters of Nova Scotia. 

 Eggs were obtained in March, by both Rosenhauer and Bud- 

 deberg, from females taken in flood drift. Rosenhauer states 

 that these eggs hatched very irregularly during April and 

 May ; the larvae avoid the light and, particularly when young, 

 are very sluggish. 



"Entom. Zeitung, Stettin, vol. 43, p. 151-152 (1882). 



"Jahrbiicher Nassau. Ver. Naturk., vol. 41, p. 33-34 (1888). 



4 Tt is interesting 1 , in this connection, to note the observation of Bird- 

 deberg on the hibernation of the eggs of Timarcha tenebricosa F. (I.e., 

 p. 43). He found that the eggs deposited in the summer hibernated 

 regularly, in spite of the fact that in July the young larvae were al- 

 ready fully developed within. 



