1911 P:NT0M0L0GICAL society. .49 



The life of the individual beetle after emerging from the ground lasts little more 

 than a week or two, and you would naturally expect its chief concern to he the per- 

 petuation of its kind. 



But often Melolonthinus, like Launcelot Gobbo, is a huge feeder, sometimes 

 entirely stripping fruit trees and ornamental shade trees of their foliage. There 

 are one or two genera in this group containing species a good deal smaller than 

 Lachnosterna, the true June bug, which are also very destructive in some parts 

 and seasons. The Eose-chafer (Macrodactylus suhspinosus) , not content with eat- 

 ing the buds and petals of rose blossoms, frequently attacks the grape-vine and 

 the foliage of various fruit trees; it is also sometimes a pest on young corn; it 

 does not seem so far to have made its way east of Toronto in any serious numbers. 



A closely allied genus is the Diclielonyclia, one species of which (Z). elongata) 

 I have often seen eating the foliage of basswood. Three seasons ago it was very 

 abundant in the woods near Port Hope, and responsible for a good deal of damage 

 done in July to the foliage of forest trees; it shows a decided preference for bass- 

 wood, eating its foliage more readily and more rapidly than other leaves, though 

 T have found it on hawthorn and on maple. 



Another genus, that of HopUa (trifasciata) , occurs often on hawthorn leaves, 

 but it is almost entirely a pollen-feeder like Trichius piger and Euphoria inda. 

 Hoplia, which occurs often on choke cherry, early elder and hawthorn, the males 

 appearing at the beginning of May and the females a fortnight later, disappears 

 at the beginning of June. Another species of Euphoria, a beautiful beetle, called 

 E. fulgida, I suspect of eating forest leaves; I have picked it up several times 

 under trees in open rocky hardwoods on the north shore of the Eideau. 



Among Scarabs that frequent foliage are also two species very destructive 

 in the tribe Riitelini, large handsome beetles — Pelidnota punctata, found on grape- 

 vines, and Cotalpa lanigcra, chiefly on pear trees, but occasionally on elm, poplar 

 and oak. I have never found this beetle, but the Pelidnota has been taken occasion- 

 ally in the neighbourhood, usually on the cultivated grape-vine, but once or twice 

 on wild vines, some miles north of the town ; it does not appear to be at all frequent 

 east of Toronto. 



I mentioned at the outset of my paper the Buprestids as a family peculiarly 

 fond of basking in the sun. There are two genera of Buprestid that eat leaves, 

 Agrilus and Brachys. The first of these is a long, narrow beetle, taken occasionally 

 on the leaves of basswood, but more common on the foliage of raspberries. The 

 larva bores in the stem of the raspberry. A curious feature about the Agrilus is 

 that in appearance and shape, as well as in some of its movements for escape or 

 to elude observation, it closely resembles the longicorn beetle Oberea ; moreover, 

 the habits and life-history of the two beetles are almost identical; they both lay 

 their eggs in raspberry stems, where the larva bores and feeds, and they both in 

 maturity resort to the leaves of the plant as a resting place and occasionally for 

 food. 



The genus Brachys is a short form of beetle, almost as broad as it is long, the 

 species I have most commonly found being Brachys cerosa; it is not uncommon on 

 basswood and two or three other forest leaves, but I have usually found it feed- 

 ing on the foliage of a hazel (Corylus rostrata), where it is sometimes abundant. 

 It is stated in Sharpe's article on insects in the Cambridge Natural History that 

 some of the smaller kinds of Buprestid have been discovered to feed on the 

 parenchyma of leaves. I know nothing about the larval habit of Brachys, but 

 arguing on analogy from Agrilus, I would hazard the guess that the larva is a leaf 

 miner on hazel or other forest leaves. 



