The Elm Beetle 261 



upper part of the hind legs are sometimes divided 

 in the middle, and the belly has five free rings. 



The babies are short, sometimes cylindrical, and 

 sometimes flattened, often brightly colored, usually 

 soft and mushy and ornamented with flattened 

 warts or branching spines. I am giving you these 

 general items because it is calculated that there 

 are between eight and ten thousand species and 

 we can have but a few drawings. The leaf 

 beetles are feeders on the leaves of plants both 

 when they are insects in the perfect form and in 

 the larva state. 



EI.M BEETLE 



Of coiu'se, every boy knows some one of the 

 elm beetles, the larva of which strips all the leaves 

 from our elm trees, then, while the poor trees are 

 gathering strength to put out a new crop of leaves, 

 the elm beetles are getting ready a new crop of 

 baby beetles to eat up the leaves as soon as they 

 appear, and the rascals keep up such tactics until 

 they eventually kill the goose that lays the golden 

 egg', in other words, the elm tree which furnishes 

 them their food (Fig. 239, larva; Fig. 240, pupa; 

 Fig. 24.1, beetle). 



There are a number of so-called elm beetles, 



