250 Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. 1917. 



Altica^ is the type genus of Alticini, one of the tribes into 

 which the family Chrysomehdae, the leaf-beetles, is commonly 

 divided. The members of this tribe are popularly known as 

 flea-beetles because of their extraordinary powers of leaping, 

 due to the strong muscles enclosed in the greatly enlarged 

 femora of their hind legs. While Geoff roy (1762) stated that 

 these insects could "jump with the agility of fleas", the first 

 writer who actually referred to them as flea-beetles, seems to 

 have been DeGeer (1775) who wrote "In Sweden they are known 

 under the name Lopp-mask, that is to say, flea-beetle." 



Among the European species of Altica, the injurious turnip- 

 fly, A. nemorum. Fab., is the best known, and of our American 

 forms the destructive grape-vine flea-beetle, A. chalybea 111., is 

 a familiar example. Besides A. chalvbca, at least two .other 

 species of Altica in addition to biinarginata Say occur in this 

 state, the biology of which will be discussed in a forthcoming 

 bulletin of this Experiment Station. ^ 



Although the alder flea-beetle is usually rather scarce, it 

 may occur more or less periodically in enormous numbers, as 

 has been intimated above. The first recorded outbreak was 

 noted by Harris (1869) while he was traveling in New Hamp- 

 shire, near Conway. Lintner (1888) gave an interesting account 

 of the depredations caused by this species near Elizabethtown, 

 N. Y., in 1877, and around Lake Pleasant, N. Y., in 1887. Pack- 

 ard (1890) mentioned this species as very abundant in Maine 

 -and New Hampshire in 1886 and 1887. 



Similar outbreaks occurred in the State of Maine during 

 the years from 1912 to 1915, and the observations recorded in 

 this paper were made during those summers. The first speci- 

 mens which were referred to the Experiment Station were sent 

 in from Pan's Hill, Maine, in mid- July 1912. Later in the sea- 

 son, the beetles and their larvae were found working extensively 

 on the alders in the Bangor Bog, near Orono. In 1913 they 

 were extremely abundant all through the township of Orono 

 and in many other parts of the state. The writer observed them 

 in the townships immediately east of Orono, as far north as 

 Mattawamkeag, and as far west as Oakland. They were not 



I 



^A discussion of the synonymy of the genus Altica Geoffrey, with 

 the reasons for changing the name from Haltica, will be found on page 



