72 



In speaking of damago effected by this leaf -miner, Chambers (Amer. 

 Ent., Vol. Ill, p. 01) says: 



The young trees seem to suffer most, as the insect seems to prefer their fohage; 

 and large old trees seldom exhibit the burnt appearance of the young groves. 

 Young shoots growing up around an old trunk will sometimes have nearly all of 

 their leaves blistered, while few, comparatively, on the old tree will be injured. 



DESCRIPTIVE. 



Few species among our native Coleoptera exhibit more striking 

 coloration than Odontota dorsaUs,^'' so that with the accompanying 

 illustration (tig. 3, a) and description even an inexperienced observer 

 can not fail to recognize it. 



b a. o 



Fig. 8. — Odontota dorsalis: a, beetle; 6, larva; r, pupa — 5 times natural 

 size (original). 



The beetle. — Elongate in form, moderately convex, only moderately shining, the 

 color of the dorsal or upper side being bright orange red with the head and a vitta 

 or stripe along the suture of the elytra or wing cases black. The ventral or under 

 side, including the legs, is also black. The black sutural vitta occupies usually 

 about one-third of the width of the elytra and widens behind, but sometimes it is 

 much narrower and of equal width and still more rarely widest at the base. The 

 structural characters which, besides the coloration, distinguish 0. dorsalis from other 

 species of the same genus are as follows: Form rather slender, not cuneiform; elytra 

 of equal width, each having ten series of punctures and three of the interstices form- 

 ing elevated costge. 



It measures a little less than a fourth of an inch in length (5-5.5 mm.) and is less 

 than half that in width (2.2-2.4 mm.) at its widest jjart. 



The egg is short, oval in outline and flattened on two sides, its color wlien freshly 



« As this species has been given other names than the one here used, a word should 

 be added in regard to nomenclature. The specific name dorsalii^ was proposed first 

 by Thunberg in 1805 ((lotting Gel. Aug., p. 282); in 1808 Olivier redescribed it as 

 Chrysomela scuteUaris (Ent. Hist. Nat., Coleoi). Vol. VI, p. 771), and Harris also 

 described the species as new, using the name Hwpa mturalis, which was first intro- 

 duced by the Rev. F. V. Melsheimer in his Catalogue of the Coleoptera of Pennsyl- 

 vania, published in 1806 (p. 15, no. 308), and seems to be based on an erroneous 

 identification of our species with the Hispa suturalis of Fabricius. 



