414 FORTr-EIGHTH REPORT ON THE STATE MUSEUM 



this, as far as the walnut shade goes, I can raise all the cucumber and 

 canteloupe plants that I choose to plant, but as soon as I get out of 

 reach of this walnut tree — in one good hour of sunshine they are eaten 

 so suddenly that I almost feel like saying they are swallowed whole by 

 the bugs. All of these plants that I have raised of late have been 

 grown in this corner until old enough to withstand the bugs (just ready 

 to vine), when they are taken up on a large shovel and carried to the 

 places prepared for them. I might think that it was the shade on the 

 east side, but that this walnut tree is a volunteer that came up quite 

 near one of the largest apple trees that I ever saw, which shaded the 

 same ground. This is now old and dying out while the walnut tree 

 takes its place. As the walnut gets larger my plant- bed, to the same 

 extent, is extended in area. 



See a brief note in the Fifth Report on the Insects of Neto York, 1889, 

 p. 159, entitled — Beans for repelling the Striped Cucumber Beetle. 

 There are many statements in agricultural journals of the supposed 

 effects of various plants in repelling insect attacks, but they all need 

 verification before they can be accepted. 



Dibolia borealis Chev. 



A Plantai7i-Z,eaf Miner. 



(Ord. Colejptkra: Fam. Chrysomelid.e.) 



Dibolia borealis Chevrolat: Guar, Icon. Regne Anim., 1845, pi. 49 bis., f. 12. 

 Dibolia airea Melsheimer: la Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., iii, 1847, p. 167. 

 Dibolia cerea Melsli. Henshaw: List Coleop. N. Amer,,1885, p. 113, no. 7057. 

 Dibolia borealis Chev. Henshaw: 3d Supp. List Coleop. Amer., 1895, p. 29. 



Plantain leaves {Pladago major) containing larvae mining them, 

 were received, through favor of Mr. C. L. Shear, of Alcove, N. Y., on 

 June 22d. They were placed in a box where they were overlooked 

 until in the autumn, when two small beetles, dead, were found in the 

 box. They were identified by Dr. John Hamilton as Dibolia cerea 

 Mels., now Dibolia borealis Chev. 



Dr. Hamilton did not know of the mining habits of the larva, but 

 was familiar with the beetle in its abundant occurrence on plantain 

 leaves, at Allegheny, and elsewhere . He called ray attention to the 

 following note by S. H. Scudder, in Pscyhe, ii, 1878, p. 154: 



Prof. F. H. Storer, of the Bussey Institution, Jamaica Plain, Mass., 

 writes me that in the latter part of May, 1876, it was next to impos- 

 sible to di-^cover a single leaf of plantain {Plantago) that was not com- 

 pletely riddled by beetles {Dibolia cerea Melsh.). Several thousand 

 plants from all sorts of situations had passed through his hands, and 

 the only perfect ones that he could find were from particularly cold, 

 sunless places on the north side of buildings. 



