THE CANAJDIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 147 



and to indicate the important references dealing- with such species and their 

 life histories. We are very grateful to the specialists whose names are men- 

 tioned in the text, for identifications and other help. In the description of the 

 larva of Chrysochus auratus, we have followed the form suggested by Mr. 

 F. C. Craighead and Dr. Adam Boving, who have done noteworthy work in 

 this field and to whom our sincere thanks are due for generous help and advice 

 with this and other larval descriptions. 



The spreading dogbane Apocynum androsacmifolium L., is a perennial 

 herb, fairly common and well distributed. In New Jersey it flowers from mid 

 June to late July or into August and may be found in large and small patches 

 along roadsides, in fields and neglected orchards, etc. The following are the 

 accounts of insects more or less closely associated with this plant. 



Chrysochus auratus Fab. (Coleop.) 



This species known as the gold gilt or goldsmith beetle is well known as 

 a feeder on dogbane. It has also been recorded as feeding on milkweed 

 (Blatchley, Col. Ind., p. 1141; Smith, Ins. N.J., p. 344) and other plants. 

 Newell and Smith (Bui. 52, U.S. Bur. Ent., p. 70) state that in northern Georgia 

 the beetle did much damage in a small pecan grove by defoliating the trees. Felt 

 (16th Kept. Bui. N. Y. St. Mus., vol. VII., No. 36) says that it lives by pre- 

 ference on dogbane and though there are accounts of the beetle attacking other 

 plants, they are probably erroneous or the insects may have been driven by 

 hunger to feed on plants otherwise unmolested. In New Jersey we have found 

 it confined almost exclusively to dogbane and occasionally on milkweed. 



The beetles can be found from the last of May until almost to the middle 

 of August, feeding usually on the edges of the leaves and consuming all of the 

 tissue, thus entirely destroying the natural outlines. Egg laying takes place over 

 a long period, it being possible to find unhatched eggs as late as the first of 

 August. Most of them, however, hatch during July. The eggs are deposited in 

 groups of two and three, being laid on their sides, usually on the under surface 

 of a leaf near the edge and covered with a little cone of excrement. Sometimes 

 they are found on the stems of the plants or on fence posts, etc., close to infested 

 plants. Zabriskie (Jour. N. Y. Ent. Soc, vol iii., p. 192) states that the tgg 

 capsules measure about 3 mm. long by. 2 mm. high and are composed of brown 

 and black pellets moulded in a conical or irregular ovoid form. Under the 

 microscope, the macerated and crushed material shows no particular structure, 

 but spores of saprophytic fungi and minute grains of sand are frequently present. 

 Zabriskie also states that he discovered a beetle ovipositing in the opening at 

 the summit of a cone and that in the crater of the cone was an tgg, evidently 

 just deposited. Considering the fact that the eggs are elongate and laid on 

 their sides on the leaf, it does not seem possible that they could be easily placed 

 in such a position after the cone was formed. In the field cones with open 

 craters were always found to be empty or to contain empty agg shells. From 

 this, it seems reasonable to assume that the cone is burlt over the eggs after 

 they have been laid and that Zabriskie probably observed a cone before it had 

 been entirely completed. 



After hatching, the larva eats through the capsule at or near the small 

 end and drops to the ground which it enters. Later, it can be found on the roots. 



