No. 4.] THE ELM-LEAF BEETLE. 291 



railroads terminating here afford ready means for its trans- 

 portation. It seems, however, that we are not always to 

 remain free from injury by this pest, for in 1898 a severe 

 outbreak occurred at Groton, only thirty miles to the north- 

 west of Boston ; while the insect was also abundant, though 

 in less numbers, at Ayer, on the main line of the Fitchburg 

 Railroad. During the present season the writer has taken the 

 beetles at Maiden, while Mr. A. F. Burgess found a number 

 of the larvae at Newton, near Brookline, on trees bordering 

 the Newton boulevard. It will be surprising, indeed, if the 

 insect does not appear in injurious numbers in Boston and 

 vicinity in the course of a few years.* 



Life History. 

 The mature beetles pass the winter in various sheltered 

 places, under clapboards, in buildings, etc., in some cases 

 crawling into houses in such great numbers as to cause much 

 annoyance. In this region they emerge from the first to the 

 middle of May, and feed greedily upon the elm, eating in- 

 numerable shot-holes in unfolding leaves. Egg-laying com- 

 mences in a few days and extends over several weeks. Of 

 two female beetles observed by Dr. Felt, one deposited four 

 hundred and thirty-one eggs in twenty-seven days, the other 

 six hundred and twenty-three eggs in twenty-eight days. 

 The eggs are spindle-shaped, orange-yellow in color, and are 

 laid in irregular rows on the under side of the leaves, in 

 much the same manner as the eggs of the potato beetle, an 

 allied insect. The young larvae emerge in about one week 

 (from late in May to the middle of June), and attack tha 

 under surface of the leaves, gnawing away the epidermis and 

 causing the leaves to turn brown. From two to three weeks 

 are required for the completion of the larval stage, at the end 

 of which period they are about one-half an inch in length, of a 

 yellowish color, with a dark-brown or black stripe on either 

 side. They then descend to the rough bark of the tree or to 

 the ground and transform to pupse. From five to ten days 

 are spent in the pupal stage, varying according to the tem- 

 perature, when the mature beetles emerge, feed, pair and lay 



* Since the above was written the elm-leaf beetle has caused serious damage at 

 Worcester, Hudson, Auburndale, Framingham, Lawrence, Salem and Quincy. 



