REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 



185 



river. It has received in the Western States the popular name of ' the 

 Cottonwood beetle ' from its special fondness shown for the foliage of the 

 Cottonwood, Populus monilifera. In recent years it has become almost 

 equally injurious to willows. It was first brought to public notice by 

 Prof. Snow, in the year of 1875, by its widespread destruction of the Cot- 

 tonwood in Kansas; and a few years later (1878) by Prof. Riley, in his 

 accounts of its more serious ravages in Nebraska and Dakota, where the 

 rapidly growing cottonwoods had been extensively planted by new set- 

 tlers in the treeless plains of that region. Many thousands of trees were 

 killed through their defoliation for successive years — the remnants of the 

 leaves turning black and shriveled as if struck by ' fire blight.' 



Its occurrence in New York. — "The beetle has never before, so far 

 as known to me, appeared in injurious numbers in the State of New 

 York. It has not been a common insect with us. Indeed, it had 

 never come under my observation until in the year 1890, when, 

 during the early part of July (4th to 7th)*- both the larvae and 

 the beetles were found by me in Keene Valley in the Adirondack 

 mountains, feeding on willows growing along the banks of the 

 Ausable river : nearly a hundred were collected for the State Collection. 

 Not a single example of the insect has since been seen by me in the five 

 following years of collecting in that locality. 



The larva. — " The larva is at first black : when full grown it is of an elon- 

 gate form and measures nearly a half-inch in length. It is then of a dingy- 

 yellowish color, with 

 head and legs shin- 

 ing black, two rows 

 of black spots on the 

 back, and in line 

 with these, a row of 

 black tubercles on 

 each side. These /r-""-^// 1 ^ 



tubercles when the 

 larva is disturbed, 

 throw out from each 

 one (for its defense 



irom Its enemies ^iq, 15.— Linascripta: «, egg-mass; b, single egg; c, newly hatched 

 thrnilfrh the nun larvae; (/(/^Z, larvae of different sizes; <?, pupa ; y, a middle joint of 

 uiiuugii uic ^uii- larva, showing tubercles. (After Riley, in Rept. Commis. Agricul. 



gency of the odor) for 1884.) 



a globule of a milky fluid, which is drawn into them again when the alarm 



passes away. 



