S THE CANADUN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



HALTICA RUFA, ILL., AT MOUNT ST. HILAIRE, QUE. 



I was out collecting at Mount .St. Hilaire, (^ue., on the 27th June, 



1905. After a long and tiresome walk through the woods, L came to a 



small marshy piece of land in which several small willows were growing. 



I immediately went to these bushes, expecting to get some Chrysomelid?e, 



in which I was ])articularly interested. I shook several of the trees over 



my net, and then examined what had fallen into it. My efforts were 



greatly rewarded by the finding of one specimen of a- reddish Chrysomelid, 



which I at once placed in the Halticini group. I had never seen it in 



any of my outings, and thought it was a good species. I brought my 



capture to Mr. Stevenson's attention, who was with me that day, and he 



made a good search for another specimen. I do not know whether he 



got some or not, but for my part I managed to get another specimen after 



hard labour. 



When I returned home I mounted them on card points, with exact 

 data, and placed them in a special box, for future study. 



It was only a month later that I succeeded in determining them. I 

 first consulted Mr. WickJiam's descriptions of the Chrysomelida? of 

 Ontario and Quebec, in the Canadian Entomologist, Vol. XXIX. A 

 rapid glance showed me that my insect was not described here, so I looked 

 up Dr. Horn's Synopsis of the Halticini of North America, published 

 1889. It did not take me long to find that the name of my little beast 

 was Haltica rtcfa. 111., an odd-looking Haltica indeed, and Dr. Horn is 

 certainly right in stating the following remarks in reference to it : " This 

 insect seems to have some trouble in finding a permanent generic resting 

 place. Following the ' Catalogus,' it is a Diso?iycha, while a species com- 

 pletely congeneric (and I think also specifically identical) has been 

 described in the ' Biologia ' as Lactica scutellaris. That it cannot be 

 referred to Lactica is evident from the character of the basal impression of 

 the thorax, and the choice is plainly between Diso7iycha and Haltica. 

 The latter genus has been chosen because there is a well-marked 

 ante-basal depression of the thorax, which is, however, said to occur in 

 Disonycha^ but is not present in any of our species." 



Dr. Horn gives to this insect a wide range of distribution, being from 

 Massachusetts to Illinois, Florida and Texas, extending through Mexico 

 to South America. I do not think it was ever known to be found in 

 Canada, and I thought, therefore, it would be of general interest to record 

 its capture here. G. Chagnon, Montreal. 



