398 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



NOTES ON CHALEPUS RUBRA WEB., IN NEW JERSEY. 



BY ALAN S. NICOLAY AND HARRY B. WEISS,* NEW BRUNSWICK, N. J. 



This species occurs throughout New Jersey, and according to 

 Smith's List is common during Ma^-, June and September on 

 locust and sometimes on basswood. Blatchley in his "Coleoptera 

 of Indiana" states that it occurs on locust, oak, soft maple and 

 basswood. Neither of these publications mentions the leaf min- 

 ing habits of the larva. Chittenden, in his paper on "The Leaf- 

 Mining Locust Beetle with Notes on Related Species," (Bull. 38, 

 N. Ser., U. S. Div. Ent.) states that Harris discovered the larva 

 in 1827 mining the foliage of white oak (Harris, Bost. Jour. Nat. 

 Hist., vol. I, pp. 141-151, 1835) and further records it from New 

 York during June and as late as September. 



According to Beutenmuller, it mines the leaves of apple and 

 linden, and the adult is recorded as occurring on white birch, 

 hornbeam, cherry, Juneberry and Pyrus arbutifolia. Harris in his 

 "Insects Injurious to Vegetation" lays stress on its importance as 

 an apple pest and mentions chokecherry and shadbush as ad- 

 ditional food plants. Chittenden (loc. cit.) states that its life- 

 history appears to be similar to that of the locust beetle C. dorsalis 

 Thunb., and records from published statements that the beetles 

 appear during the last of May and deposit eggs on the host leaves 

 in which the larvse mine. The eggs are described as small, round 

 and of a blackish colour, being fastened to the surface of the leaf 

 either singly or in groups of four or five. 



In New Jersey we have found the mines not uncommon on 



the leaves of various species of oaks, each one usually being at 



the edge of a leaf. The larva eats all of the parenchyma in its, mine 



resulting in the mine being visible On both leaf surfaces. It 



shows plainest, however, on the upper surface as a white elongate 



irregular discoloration. During the last half of June and first 



half of July the larvse can be readily found within their mines. 



We have never found more than one larva in a mine. The pupal 



stage requires about two weeks and occurs the last week in July 



and first part of August, the beetles emerging during the second 



week of August and later. After emerging from the pupa case 



t he beetles are light yellowish red, without distinct markings. 



*The arrangement of the authors' names is alphabetical. 

 December, 1918 



