306 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [July, 'll 



Chrysomela staphylea Linne in North America (Col.). 



By FREDERICK KNAB, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Wash- 

 ington, D. C. 



In order to settle, if possible, the identity of certain 

 Coleoptera, described by Kirby, from Nova Scotia, I wrote 

 letters to several collectors at Halifax. As the result of this 

 correspondence I received a box of beetles kindly collected 

 for me by Mr. Joseph Perrin, of MacNabs Island, near Hali- 

 fax. They were all larger beetles, mostly familiar species, 

 and none of the species I wished to see were among them. 

 There were, however, three specimens of a Chrysomela (re- 

 stricted sense) which I at once recognized as distinct from 

 any of the species attributed to our fauna. Yet the insect 

 had a strangely familiar appearance, and naturally the suspi- 

 cion arose that it might be one of the numerous European 

 species. So it proved, and the specimens were quickly identified 

 as Chrysomela staphylea Linne, a very common species in 

 Northern Europe. In fact, the species is one of distinctly 

 boreal distribution, extending through Siberia and Northern 

 Europe, and ranging southward to the Caucasus, Dalmatia, the 

 Tyrol and the Pyrenees. 



Comparison with European material and with descriptions 

 showed that the Nova Scotia specimens agree in every respect 

 with typical European ones. The beetle is uniformly ferrugin- 

 ous brown in color, with a slight brassy luster on the upper 

 surface. Immature specimens are a lighter, opaque rust-red, 

 without the metallic luster. In form it is similar to our 

 Chrysomela auripennis, although slightly broader and with 

 less prominent humeri. The pronotum is very finely, and rather 

 densely punctured. The elytral punctuation is coarser and 

 more sparse, in more or less confused double series ; in some 

 specimens two or three impunctate intervals appear. 



There appears to be but one previous record of the beetle 

 from North America, and this with a query. A single speci- 

 men is reported by Mr. J. D. Evans as taken at Halifax in 



