COLEOPTERA. 115 



the end of July. I have not had an opportunity to trace the 

 history of these insects any further, and consiupiently their 

 larva? are unknown to me. IVIr. 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 suc- 

 culent 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 was " wholly unexampled." " 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 in- 

 fested, 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 vitivora), he fed them in a 

 tumbler, containing some moist earth, until they were fuUy 

 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 stiU wanted. 

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

 attracted great attention, and have caused many and various 

 experiments 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 experi- 

 enced" from this insect. From this and other statements in 

 favor of the use of lime, there is good reason to hope that it 

 wiU effectually protect plants from the various kinds of flea- 

 beetles, if dusted over them, when wet with dew, in proper 

 season. Watering plants with alkaline 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 



