170 Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. 1918. 



beetle had succeeded in kicking the old skin off the end of + he 

 abdomen, and was entirely free from the pupal cuticula. 



Coloration of adult. As the beetle emerges, the eyes, anten- 

 nae, mouth parts, and legs (except the proximal two-thirds of 

 all of the femora) are black; the tip of the pygidium is shining 

 violet black, as are also parts of the pronotum and the scutellum. 

 The first change is to be noted in the legs, which become fully 

 colored in about 2 hours. The metathoracic legs are always the 

 first to become pigmented. In about 5 hours, the head is black, 

 except for the occiput, and also the whole of the pronotum. The 

 elytra now begin to be gray and shiny, and are dark gray by 6 

 hours after emergence. In 7 hours the head is entirely black 

 above. The normal coloration is reached in about 19 hours. 

 The elytra never begin to turn gray until the legs are fully 

 colored, and the beetle is all gray dorsally before it begins to 

 darken up at all ventrally. The beetle is very soft as it emerges, 

 and it remains in the pupal cell for about 20 hours before trying 

 to break out or until it is fully colored and hardened. 



Feeding habits. The adults feed freely on the leaves, biting 

 holes through them. The work is characteristic, and is very 

 different from the type of work done by the larvae. The nature 

 of the work is shown in figure 13A. The beetles feed only in 

 the spring. In the summer they enter into a hibernation as soonj 

 as they emerge, and feed only to a very limited extent, if at all. 



Copulation. The beetles remain paired for several hours 

 when they mate. One female pairs several times during the egg- 

 laying season. 



Number of eggs deposited by one female. Each female 

 ordinarily lays about 400 eggs. The greatest number of eggs 

 that was laid by any one female was 698 between June 8 and 

 July 20 (1917). The greatest number laid by one beetle in 24 

 hours was 41, all in a single cluster, and the next greatest 34, in 

 one cluster of 16 and another of 18. 



Food Plants. 



Natural food plants. The only plants on wdiich the writer 

 has ever taken beetles of this species in the field all belong to the 

 genus Comus. In Maine, the writer has found them mostly on 

 the red osier dogwood, C. stolonifera Michx, and less frequently 



