COLEOPTERA. 105 



sequently their larvae are unknown to me. Mr. David Thomas 

 has given an interesting account of their habits and ravages in the 

 twenty-sixth volume of Silliman's "American Journal of Science 

 and Arts." These brilliant insects were observed by him, in the 

 spring of 1831, in Cayuga County, N. Y., creeping on the vines, 

 and destroying the buds, by eating out the central succulent parts. 

 Some had burrowed even half their length into the buds. When 

 disturbed, they jump rather than fly, and remain where they fall 

 for a time without motion. During the same season these beetles 

 appeared in unusually great numbers in New Haven, Conn., and its 

 vicinity, and the injury done by them then was "wholly unexam- 

 pled." " Some vines were entirely despoiled of their fruit buds, 

 so as to be rendered, for that season, barren." Mr. Thomas 

 found the vine-leaves were infested, in the years 1830 and 1831, 

 by " small chestnut-colored smooth worms," and suspecting 

 these to be the larvae of the beetle (which he called Chrysomela 

 vilivora), he fed them in a tumbler, containing some moist earth, 

 until they were fully grown, when they buried themselves in the 

 earth. " After a fortnight or so," some of the beetles were found 

 in the tumbler. Hence there is no doubt that the former were the 

 larvae of the beetles, and that they undergo their transformations 

 in the ground. A good description of the larvae, and a more full 

 account of their habits, seasons, and changes, are still wanted. 



In England, where the ravages of the turnip flea-beetle have 

 attracted great attention, and have caused many and various ex- 

 periments to be tried with a view of checking them, it is thought 

 that " the careful and systematic use of lime will obviate, in a 

 great degree, the danger which has been experienced" from this 

 insect. From this and other statements in favor of the use of 

 lime, there is good reason to hope that it will effectually protect 

 plants from the various kinds of flea-beetles, if dusted over them, 

 when wet with dew, in proper season. Watering plants with alka- 

 line solutions, it is said, will kill the insects without injuring the 

 plants. The solution may be made by dissolving one pound of 

 hard soap in twelve gallons of the soap-suds left after washing. 

 This mixture should be applied twice a day with a water-pot. 

 Kollar very highly recommends watering or wetting the leaves of 

 plants with an infusion or tea of wormwood, which prevents the flea- 

 14 



