412 FOETY-EIGHTH EEPORT ON THE STATE MUSEUM 



I fear that it would spoil the grapes for wine-making. In the mean- 

 time, my emotions are too great for utterance. I think that Job makes 

 no mention of ever having contended with the Anomala marginata. I 

 would he were here. His opinions expressed in choice Chaldaic might 

 possibly fit the case and give me some relief. J. K. H. 



A Southern Species. 



Fortunately, Anomala marginata rarely occurs in such overwhelm- 

 ing numbers as recorded in the above communication, and then only in 

 the Southern States. It has an extensive distribution from Texas 

 eastward and northward into Tennessee. It has not, so as far as known 

 to me, been taken in the State of New York, although Dr. Hamilton 

 reports it as occasionally seen in southwestern Pennsylvania, and Dr. 

 J. B. Smith, the same in New Jersey, but occurring over most of the 

 State. It is markedly a southern species, as is, indeed, the genus, for 

 of the twelve contained species, only four pertain to the Middle States. 



Little Recorded of its Habits. 

 Very little has been written of this insect, — its habits having re- 

 ceived but little attention. The only notices of its injuries found in 

 the many volumes consulted, are these: in Insect 

 Life, i, 1888, p. 220, a gentleman writing from Deni- 

 son, Texas, who had received specimens from Louisi- 

 ana, states that they come in June and July, and are 

 ravenous feeders on the leaves of the grape, com- 

 pletely skeletonizing them, and also eating out the 

 Anomala, ^ Anomala joung buds and tips of the shoots. When disturbed, 

 ^ze.'^'cortginaL)"'^* they drop to the ground and remain motionless for 

 some time, unlike another species associated with them (^1. minuta), 

 which at once runs to cover. 



Another notice is in Bisect Life, v, 1892, from the gentleman whose 

 communication to the Country Gentleman has been given herewith. 

 The additional facts mentioned in this later letter are these: It had 

 been noticed in former seasons, but only in isolated examples. In ad- 

 dition to the grape, it had also attacked the foliage of apple and plum — 

 not the pear. The beetles drop to the ground the moment a leaf is 

 touched. 



Description. 



The beetle is described as follows, by Dr. Horn : 



Oval, robust, pale rufescent, disc of thorax and head darker; surface 

 with aeneous lustre; head densely punctured; clypeus short, broader 



