124 ENTOMOLOGiCAi, NEWS. [May, '19 



Notes on Zcugophora scutellaris Suffr,, a European 

 Poplar Leaf-miner, in New Jersey (Col.). 



By Harry B. Weiss and Alan S. Nicolay, New Brunswick, 



N. J. 



This Chrysomelid, not heretofore recorded from New Jer- 

 sey, was first observed in the State by Mr. Nicolay in a nursery 

 at ArHngton on June 23, where it was feeding on the foHage 

 of poplar (Popidus deltoides). It is a European species oc- 

 curring in Middle Europe and also appears to be widely dis- 

 tributed in the United States. A specimen in the Schaeffer 

 collection is labelled "New Mexico" ; Mr. C. A. Frost writes 

 that he has a specimen from Champaign, Illinois, and Blatch- 

 ley in his "Coleoptera of Indiana" records it as rare in Starke 

 and Wells counties. He further states that it was beaten from 

 the leaves of hickory. In New Jersey we have found it only 

 on poplar. Smith, in his list of the insects of New Jersey (N. 

 J. State Mus. Report, 1909), mentions a related species, Z. vari- 

 ans Crotch, as being rare on poplar, and Blatchley also records 

 this latter species from Indiana under similar conditions. 



In New Jersey Zcugophora sciitcllaris is a feeder on poplar 

 during its adult stage, and a leaf miner during its larval stages. 

 It was very plentiful during the last week of June. The adults 

 were active in the sunshine and when disturbed some would 

 drop for six or eight inches, then recover and fly off. Many 

 were observed in copula. The terminal leaves were preferred 

 for feeding purposes and everything appeared to be eaten 

 except the upper leaf surface and the supporting veins, even 

 the smallest veins being left. The leaves were therefore skele- 

 tonized from the lower surface. Later, the upper leaf tissue 

 and the veins dry and break, leaving irregular holes. 



Eggs are deposited on the leaves and the larvae mine the 

 tissue during July. By the first week in August many are full 

 grown. They then leave the mines and drop to the groimd 

 in which pupation takes place, the adults appearing the early 

 part of the next summer. 



During the middle of September it was possible to find the 

 yellowish, curved larvae from one to five inches below the 



