and are placed on the leaves and stems of the plant. Althoug-h some- 

 times concealed in folds of the buds and flower-heads they are more 

 often in plain view, placed on the upper surface of the leaves. The 

 adult females are very productive, one female in captivity producing 

 eight hundred and eighty-seven eggs during a period of sixty-eight 

 days. The average, taken from the laying record of thirty females, 

 was five hundred and tAventy eggs. 



Tlie eggs hatch in from four to six days, and the young larvae 

 that emerge begin at once to feed upon the foliage. Growing rapidly 

 the larva moults at the end of five days and again three days later. 

 Growth continues rapidly for a few days, then becomes slower and 

 slower until no further increase in size is perceptible, yet it is not 

 until fifteen days later after the second moult that the larva descends 

 to the soil to pupate. Five days are spent in a prepupal state and 

 six more in the true pupal state before the adult beetle actually 

 emerges, thus making a total of thirty-nine days from egg to adult. 



Technical Description of Stages. 



Adult. — A large steely blue beetle. Original description by Fa- 

 brieious. 



Ohlonga cyanea antennis pedil)usque nigris affinis C. alni at alia et minor, 

 thorax et elytra cyanea, nitida, imma'cidaia, abdomen ohscurum. Pedis niger. 



Egg. — The egg is pale yellow in color, oblong-oval in shai')e, and 

 provided with an exterior covering that is usuall>- broken in places, 

 showing the inner shell. This exterior covering is finally reticulated 

 and dull in appearance. The inner covering is slightly shining and 

 is sculptured with hexagonal-shaped markings. Length 1.2-1.3 mm. 

 Width .45-.5 mm. 



Larva. — Robust, tapering graduall}^ from the fourth abdominal 

 segment both cepheled and caudad ; general color yellowish-lirown, 

 with numerous black tubercules on each segment; head black, thoracic 

 and anal plates black and strongly chitinized ; legs black, head and 

 body well supplied with numerous spine-like hairs. Length 14 mm., 

 greatest width 3 mm. 



The immature stages of the larva are smaller, and the tubercules 

 closer together, giving the first-stage larva the appearance of being 

 almost black. 



Bibliography. 



1792. Fabricius, J. C — Entomologia Systematica Emendata et 

 Aucta secundum, classes, ordines, genera, species, adjectis, synonimis, 

 locis, observationibus, descriptionibus. Tom. 1. 2. p. 16. 



174 



