do THE EEPOKT OF 'i HE No. 36 



naturalists, — Chrijsomela (Golden Apple — or is it an Homeric word meaning 



"golden sheep"?) from which the tribe gets its name of Chrysomelini or 



Chrysomela-like beetles, and the whole family its name of Chrysomelidae, the 



scions or clan of Chrysomela. This is a most beautiful beetle; the characteristic 



appearance being roundish-oval in shape and decidedly convex above; head and 



thorax mostly dark metallic and wing-covers a creamy white, daintily sculptured 



with metallic greenish or bluish black. It suggests old ivory inlaid with ebony or 



jet. In the early days of collecting, this was a beetle I coveted more than any 



other; the species that above all took my fancy being Chrysomela scalaris. There 



was a brother-collector in town whose cases I was continually poring over. But 



it was in my second season as a collector that I first had the luck to " strike ile," 



and it was right on that dogwood bush behind the north fence of our road. I 



found here several specimens of a Chrysomela rather smaller than scalaris with 



greenish-black head and thorax, elytra cream-coloured and finely sculptured and 



dotted with metallic greenish black; it proved to be Chrysomela philadelphica, and 



a short search among dogwood shrubs yielded me some 50 specimens of the beetle. 



This was at the end of June and in July I migrated with all my bug-and-weed 



paraphernalia to the Eideau Lakes. It wasn't long before I found grazing on 



basswood leaves along with walking-stick insects, whole flocks of a small whitish 



larva, marked with black, somewhat louse-shaped, and so strongly resembling the 



larva of the Potato-beetle that visions of Chrysomela scalaris began again to float 



before my excited imagination and to haunt my dreams. I separated about 



flfteen of the best grown lambs of the flock and shepherded them home to a 



domestic fold. But they seemed to scorn captivity and quite obviously pined in 



their cardboard box. Twice a day I brought them fresh fodder from their native 



pasture, but they wouldn't browse worth a cent; and I lost one or two with every 



moult; less than half a dozen reached maturity and Oif these two died in pupating. 



However, three emerged safely and proved the realization of my dream, Chrysomela 



scalaris, all the more lovely in being home-grown. 



The knowledge that hundreds of these creatures must have matured about the 

 basswood trees Avhere I had made my captures drew me out to their feeding- 

 grounds again. This time I searched in vain, not a larva could I see on any of the 

 leaves, still less a mature insect; for the full-fed larva in this genus drops to the 

 ground in order to pupate, and though it was the beetle itself that I had found 

 gregarious on the dogwood, there seemed to be no such luck in the case of this 

 species; at the end of two hours I was still empty-handed. It was when I was 

 passing across a stubble-field in the open from one part of the edge of the wood to 

 another that I felt something crawling on the back of my neck. Of course, 

 gentlemen, you all know the extraordinary phenajnenon of an insect crawling on 

 the back of the neck. No matter how rare it may have been when it first settled. 

 if once you reach with your hand to make a capture it nearly always — well if you 

 wish for an exact fi,gure, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred it turns into an 

 aculeate hjrtnenopteron and poniards the cord of your neck with that most 

 venomous of stilettos, the wasp-sting; in the hundredth case of course, it simply 

 flies away. I was on the horns of a dilemma: if that creature was Chrysomela 

 scalaris T wanted it badly; on the other hand I stood good chances of being stung, 

 literally or figuratively, by its proving a wasp or something worthless or making 

 its escape. My embarrassment was worse than that of the cockney sportsman (as 

 pictured by Punch) when the bird he was aiming at suddenly settled on the middle 

 of his gun-barrel; because, though T am told this would make a very difficult shot. 



