UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Jf>-^^W°ts 



1 BULLETIN No. 352 yi^ 



Contribution from the Bureau of Entomology '^^3/\'/vI^^ 



L. O. HOWARD, Chief. 



J^i^'^LfU 



Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER. 



May 5, 1916 



THE CHERRY LEAF-BEETLE/ A PERIODICALLY 

 IMPORTANT ENEMY OF CHERRIES. 



By R. A. CusHMAN, Entomological Assistant, and Dwight Isely, Scientific Assistant, 

 Deciduous Fruit Insect Investigations. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction 1 



Food plants 2 



Distribution 3 



Economic history previous to 1915 3 



The 1915 outbreak 3 



Feeding habits and destructiveness 5 



Description of stages 6 



Life history 9 



Seasonal-history summary 18 



A predatory enemy 19 



Control 19 



Bibliography 25 



INTRODUCTION. 



The sudden appearance of enormous numbers of a small red 

 beetle throughout a wide area in the northeastern United States in 

 the spring of 1915 caused consternation among many of the fruit 

 growers of that region. It attacked the foliage of cherry and peach 

 trees and to some extent the fruit of the former. Its range of great- 

 est destructiveness was in New York, Pennsylvania, and northern 

 West Virginia. This insect is the so-caUed cherry leaf-beetle 

 (Galerucella cavicollis LeC.) (fig. 1), a member of the family Chrysc- 

 melidae, and is closely allied to the imported elm leaf -beetle (G. luteola 

 Miiller); At the time of its appearance practically nothing was 

 known by fruit growers in regard either to its habits or its control, 

 and comparatively Httle was known by entomologists. Sporadic 

 outbreaks had occurred in the past, but references to them in ento- 

 mological literature are brief. Taking advantage of this unusual 

 outbreak, the wTiters have undertaken to secure as complete data as 

 possible in regard to its natural food plants, its immature stages and 



1 Galerucella cavicollis LeContc; order Coleoptera, famUy Chrysomelidse. 



Note. — While this paper was going through the press an account of this insect appeared in the 

 Journal of Agricultural Research under the authorship of Glenn W. Herrick and Robert Matheson of 

 Cornell University. 



20968°— Bull. 352—16 1 ' 



