216 Forty-first Report on the State Museum, 



Xylotrechus Probably Conveyed in Hickory Wood, 

 Subsequently to the reply made to the inquiry of the probable cause 

 of the presence of X. colonus, it was learned that a half-cord of hickory 

 fire-wood had been stored in the basement of the dwelling in which the 

 beetles made their appearance. There is, therefore, hardly room for 

 doubt that they had escaped from the wood, and that the insect, at 

 times, may infest hickory, in addition to oak and maple. 



Xylotrechus colonus, described by Fabricius in 1775, has an exten- 

 sive distribution throughout the United States east of the Kocky 

 Mountains. According to I'abbe Provancher, it is not uncommon 

 in Canada. Its European synonymy and bibliography may be found 

 in Mr. Leng's " Synopses of the Cerambycidse," Entomologica Ameri- 

 cana, ii., 1887, p. 200. 



Examples of a congener of the above — X. undulatus (Say), have 

 been taken by Mr. Erastus Corning, Jr., of Albany, at Murray Bay, 

 Canada, in the month of August, as they were emerging from their 

 burrows in the trunks of spruces. The species has not been pre- 

 viously recorded as infesting the spruce, nor do we know of any 

 record of its food. 



Haltica bimarginata (Say). 



The Alder Flea-beetle. 



(Ord. Coleopteea: Earn. CnRYSOMELiniE). 



This devastating devourer, at times, of the 



foliage of the alder over extended areas, 



is among the larger of our flea-beetles, being 



one-fifth of an inch in length. It may be 



recognized by its general resemblance to the 



well-known grapevine flea-beetle, Haltica 



chalybea 111., and its uniform deep prussian 



blue color with greenish reflections on the 



head, and the elevated line near the outer 



Fig. 40.- The grape-vine border of each wing-cover. A figure of H. 



flea-beetle, Haltica chaly- chalybea is herewith given, which may serve 



BEA, and its larva. ^^ illustrate its principal features. 



It was described by Say, in the Journal of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. iv, 1824, p. 85, in the following terms : 



Body oblong-oval, blue, minutely punctured ; antennae black ; thorax 

 with an impressed, transverse, rectilinear line behind the middle, 

 attaining the lateral margin, and another impressed line before, which 

 is interrupted in the middle and abbreviated each side ; elytra with 

 an elevated, submarginal line each side, originating on the humerus, 

 and nearly parallel with the exterior edge. 



