INSECTS AFFECTIXG PARK AXD WOODLAND TREES 327 



may be met with on the underside of the leaves. He finds that the eggs 

 are deposited by the female at intervals of about two minutes, the act of 

 oviposition itself recjuiring only a fraction of a second. On the completion 

 of oviposition the beetle makes a sudden movement forward, sweeping the 

 upper side of the egg mass with the tip of her abdomen and covers it with 

 a large quantity of fluid, dirty yellow fecal matter which soon hardens and 

 darkens. He adds that there are never more than five eggs in a mass. 

 Mr Chittenden states that the young larvae invariably break through 

 the eggshell on the underside and begin gnawing through the epidermis 

 of the leaf without leaving the protection of ihe c<^g mass. They then 

 proceed to devour the softer parenchyma, thus forming what is known as 

 a tentiform mine. There is but a single entrance to the mine, the later 

 hatchmg grubs availing themselves of the hole eaten by the earliest indi- 

 vidual, therefore from 3 to 5 young grubs usually occur within a mine, 

 which is rapidly enlarged by their united efforts. The mine in one leaf 

 rarely occupies more than ji or -:; of its area, and this means that in from 

 two to four days after hatching the grubs forsake the original retreat, wan- 

 der along leaf stems to other leaves and begin operations anew. This time 

 each grub works by itself. The injury inflicted by the adults and the lar\ae, 

 particularly the latter, causes the leaves to turn brown, wither and fall. The 

 writer found mostly deserted mines and very few larvae at Westfield Aug. 

 15, 1902, indicating that the main portion of the brood had completed its 

 transformations. Apparently there is but one generation in this latitude, 

 specially since ^Ir Chittenden states that while the insect appears at Wash- 

 ington in May, a month earlier than in Massachusetts, and ma)" be found in 

 all stages throughout the summer till early in August, he has seen no 

 evidence of a second generation being produced. 



Food plants. This species prefers the locust. It also has been 

 recorded as attacking the young leaves of red oak, and Dr Hoi)kins has 

 found it on white oak, beech, birch and hawthorn in West \'irginia. Mr 

 Chittenden records the beetle as feeding on red clover, hog peanut and 

 soja beans. 



