REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 1 87 



ends of the tips. When the willows are more advanced, with the second 

 brood of beetles, this tip-feeding habit becomes more harmful, as they 

 then girdle the twigs by eating away the bark, causing the tips to bend 

 over and die, necessitating the putting out of one or more side shoots, 

 Avhich seriously impairs the value of the plant, producing unsightly bends, 

 necessitating trimming before use, and materially interfering with the 

 stripping of the bark. The larvje feed only on the leaves. The eggs, 

 being laid on the under surface of the leaves in clusters averaging about 

 40, the larvae on emerging, in company eat away the epidermis and the 

 parenchyma between the small reticulating veins, leaving the upper 

 epidermis unbroken. This feeding habit renders a more thorough and 

 careful spraying of the arsenites necessary in order to reach the under 

 surface of the leaf and kill the larvoe in their first stage. Later they 

 separate and eat through the leaf. 



So familiar are the growers with the larvae in their several moltings 

 that the only name by which they are spoken of is " hangers." The 

 beetles are known as " hard-shells." 



Early Retreat to Hibernating Quarters. 



I was disappointed upon finding at my visit made on August 22d, 

 that the beetles had already gone into their winter quarters, for Mr. 

 Bruner, Entomologist of the Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station, 

 in his notice of the insect, Bulletin No. 14, has stated: "The perfect 

 insect in the fall, after the first heavy frosts, leave the cottonwoods, pop- 

 lars, and willows where they have been feeding and seek some shelter," 

 Only about a half-dozen could be found by careful search to show me, 

 A few weeks before, the air had been, at times, filled with them in the 

 streets of the village, " gathered," it was said, "in swarms like companies 

 of gnats and midges.'' They had commenced to retire for hibernation 

 during the first half of July, and by the ist of August nearly all had 

 disappeared. They are now to be found in old stone walls, under rub- 

 bish of all kinds, in the crevices of rocks and stones and occasionally in 



houses. 



Eggs — Abundance and where Laid, 



Should it be desirable to attempt the destruction of the eggs of this 

 beetle, it is of importance to know that the first deposit is by no means 

 confined to the willows but that they are placed on various plants and 

 weeds and even on other than vegetable growth, but presumably in close 

 vicinity to the willows. As showing the abundance of egg-clusters, it was 

 stated that 700 clusters had been picked from a row of willows 20 rods 



