341 



lu tlie economic literature of Europe we find but a single notice of 

 tbis Crepidodera, viz, by Kaltenbach (Pflauzeiifeinde, p. 141), wliere 

 he briefly says: '■^ Sitones lineatns and Haltica rufipes are injurious to 

 young peas and field beans," but while a good deal has lately been 

 written on the Sitones, especially by British economic entomologists, 

 no further notice is made of the Crepidodera, and it is evident that 

 tbis beetle is by no means a serious pest in Europe. As to the injury 

 done in the United States, there are no records previous to 1887, when 

 Mr. Murrell, on whose farm at Coleman's Falls, Va., the invasion of 

 1893 took place, sent specimens of the beetle to Prof. J. A. Lintner, 

 who, in bis Fourth Annual Eeport, pp. 101-103, devotes a short chapter 

 to the insect, including Mr. Murrell's account of the invasion of that 

 year. 



One year afterward another invasion was reported to us by Messrs. 

 Stover & Stover, Edgemont, Washington County, Md., in a letter 

 dated May 15, 1888, which is published in Insect Life, vol. i, p. 280. 



Finally, the present year, a few days after Mr. Schwarz's return from 

 Coleman's Falls, Prof. Van Deman, chief of the Division of Pomology, 

 referred to us a letter from Mr. W. A. Powell, of Lexington, Va., in 

 which complaints were made of the sudden appearance in injurious 

 numbers of a small beetle on young peach trees. jSTo further particu- 

 lars were given, nor were there accompanying specimens, but there can 

 be little doubt that the invaders were the same Crepidodera rufipes. 



It will be noted that all these reports are from 

 the slopes of the Alleghany Mountains, which is 

 just the region where, in the experience of our field 

 coleopterists, this Crepidodera is far more abundant 

 than elsewhere. 



It will be further noted that in all these instances 

 the invasion took place early in the spring, and it 

 would appear that later in the season, when the 

 orchard trees have acquired their full foliage, these 

 attacks cease and the beetles feed ui^on the leaves pig 47 crepidodem ru- 

 of the locust bushes. Similar attacks on the part/i'««-eniarge(i. (Original.) 

 of other flea-beetles are on record. Thus we recorded in Insect 

 Life, vol. i, p. 221, the appearance of great numbers of Haltica 

 iyniia on grapevines in the Salt River Valley of Arizona during 

 the first part of April. The same species appeared toward the end 

 of March in enormous numbers on strawberries at .Orlando Fla., (1. 

 c, II, p. 369).* A remarkable case of the early appearance of another 

 flea-beetle is also recorded in Insect Life (vol. iv, p. 401), where 



*Prof. F. M. Webster's short note in Insect Life, hi, pp. 317-318, is of special 

 interest, for he reports that this Haltica appears on the strawberry plants in the 

 months of July and August, injuring the young foliage which appeared after the 

 strawberry-bed fields had been burned. 



