402 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 



GRAPE. LEAVES. 



127. Gartered plume, Pterophorus periscelidactylas, Fitch. (Lepidoptera. 

 Alucitidae.") 



Consuming the young leaves, in June, and hiding itself in a 

 hollow ball made of one or more leaves drawn together by silken 

 threads; a cylindrical pale green worm, nearly half an inch long, 

 with rows of white elevated dots sending out radiating white 

 hairs, the pupa suspended by its tail and hanging with its head 

 downwards, and in about a week giving out the moth, early in 

 July. The moth tawny yellow, its wings split into long narrow 

 lobes, the fore pair with three white spots and beyond these two 

 white bands, the fi-inge white with a blackish spot on the middle 

 and another on the apex of the inner margin. See Transactions, 

 1854 p. 843. 



4. Insects eating the leaves. 



128. Grape-vine flea-beetle, HaUica chalybea, lUiger. (Coleoptera. 

 Chrysomelidae.) 



Early in spring, eating holes in the buds and leaves, a small 

 oblong oval flea-beetle, 0.16 long, polished and sparkling, of a 

 deep greenish blue color, some of the individuals often deep 

 green, purple or violet, their under side dark green and their 

 antennae and legs dull black. This sometimes invades the plum 

 also, as mentioned p. 362, and it also infests the elm and the alder. 

 Its winter retreat Is in crevices of the bark and in the earth 

 immediately around the root of the tree on which it feeds, and its 

 colors are then much less bright and sparkling than in summer. 

 See Harris's Treatise, p. 114. 



Chevrolat in Dejean's Catalogue has cut up the Chrysomelidae into a multi- 

 tude of "-enera. Whether the divisions which he has instituted should be 

 received as anything more than subgenera appears doubtful. But however 

 this may be, Linnaeus originall}^ gave the name Alfica to a section or subgenus 

 of Chrysomela, which has since been currently admitted to the rank of a genus, 

 with a slight rectification by some authors in the orthography of its name. 

 The species oleracea being originally placed at the head of this genus, must be 

 regarded as its type. Therefore, whatever may be the destiny of M. Chevro 

 lat's other proposed genera, that which he names Graptodera, under which 

 9leracea and our American chalybea are arranged, can in our view be regarded 

 only as a synonym. Nothing stable and permanent can ever be reached in this 

 part of the science, if old generic names are to be cast overboard in this sum- 

 mary manner. 



