ALDER LEAF-INSECTS. 631 



the Qianaer of canker worms. Upon examination the spoilers were found not 

 to be all dispersed, and several were seea upon the leaves still continuing their 

 work ; at the same time were found in Conway nnmerous beetles, which proved to 

 be a species of Haltica, eating the leaves off the same alders. The larvai which have 

 ravaged the shrubs were doubtless those of the Haltica before named. 



We have reared the beetles from the grubs during the past season. 

 At Merepoint, near Brunswick, Me., during the middle of August, 



1886, we noticed clumps of alders standing in dry soil partly defoliated, 

 or with skeletonized, brown, or blackish leaves, on which, as well as 

 the still remaining green leaves, were black grubs, sometimes seven or 

 eight on a leaf. All the alders in the region were not molested, the 

 grubs occurring locally. On placing a number of leaves with the 

 grubs in a tin box we found, August 15, a single beetle. We found a 

 white pupa lying loosely on the bottom of the box August 20; soon 

 more pup{« appeared, and the beetles began to appear in considerable 

 numbers the last week of August. It is evident that in nature the 

 larva falls to the ground to transform, the pup?e entering the earth. 



Afterwards, September 10, we found whole clumps of alders at the 

 base of Iron Mountain, Jackson, N. H., stripped by the grubs, nearly 

 all the riddled, brown, dead leaves having fallen oft' and thickly cover- 

 ing the ground under the bushes. Such a wholesale devastation of 

 alders we never witnessed. By this time the beetles had become very 

 abundant, and were apparently feeding on the few leaves still attached 

 to the tree. We again noticed the work of this beetle in September, 



1887, at the Glen House, White Mountains, the alders by the river side 

 in front of the hotel having been extensively defoliated. The alder is 

 the source of some of our destructive forest and fruit insects, and should 

 this grub ever spread to other food trees it will be very annoying, 

 though it can be subdued by proper spraying. There seems to be a 

 periodicity in the appearance of this beetle in unusual numbers, 

 Harris having seen the same grubs in great abundance in 1854 in the 

 same region. We have never observed it so common and destructive 

 before in Maine. It is most probable that the beetles hibernate under 

 the leaves and, soon after the leaves expand in May, lay their eggs in 

 masses on them, the grubs scarcely stirring from the leaf on which 

 they are born, until ready to pupate. The grubs are probably distaste- 

 ful to birds, otherwise they would fall an easy prey to them and be 

 kept within due limits. 



Larva. — Body somewhat flattened ; head scarcely two-thirds as wide as the body 

 in the middle ; black, becoming brown in front near the jaws. Body livid brown 

 above ; the tubercles black ; paler beneath ; with three pairs of black jointed tho- 

 racic legs ; no abdominal legs, but an anal prop-leg. The abdominal segments each 

 with a transverse, oval-rounded, ventral, rough space forming a series of creeping 

 tubercles, and in front on each segment is a transverse, oval, crescentic ckitinous 

 area bearing two piliferous tubercles; the back of each segment divided into two 

 ridges, each bearing a row of six sharp tubercles, bearing short hairs ; a single ven- 

 tral row on each side of the ventral plate. Length 7 to 10"™. 



Pupa. — Body rather thick, white. Antennae passing around the bent knees (femero- 



