Report of the State Entomologist. 219 



causing them to look as if a fire had. swept over them; and a locality 

 was mentioned where it could be seen. 



Visiting' the place indicated, near the inlet of Lake Pleasant, on 

 July sixteenth, immense numbers of the dark brawn shining* larvse of 

 Haltica bimarginata were found on the outskirts of the infested area of 

 alders, rapidly eating- away all the green material of the leaves — 

 feeding from both the upper and lower sides, to the number, often, of 

 twelve or more on a single leaf. The area over which the devastating 

 scourge had j)assed, presented a strange appearance with its com- 

 pletely skeletonized foliage — only here and there an overlooked bit 

 of green leaf being visible on some of the branches near the ground. 

 A closer examination showed beautiful and almost perfect skeletoniza- 

 tion of unbroken ribs and branching veins and interconnecting reti- 

 cular structure, giving almost as attractive specimens for the cabinet 

 as if they had been prepared by hand for ornament or study. 



A large number of the larvse were collected and placed in alcohol, 

 while others were confined in a box, and furnished with leaves for 

 food. They appeared at this time to be about full-grown. Although 

 supplied frequently with fresh leaves of which they partook, they 

 showed scarcely any increase of size, and, much to my surprise, up to 

 the time of my leaving Lake Pleasant — August fifth- — none had 

 entered upon their pupal stage. 



The Larvae Destroyed by a Fungus. 



The day prior to my departure I visited an infested localit}^ near 

 Round Lake, for the purpose of finding, if possible, the pupse and 

 its hidden place of pupation. The period of active larval opera- 

 tions had passed, for only one example of the larva could be found 

 still feeding. In that portion of the alder clump where the attack 

 had centered, every leaf had been skeletonized, and apparently more 

 than half of the destroyed foliage had fallen to the ground where it 

 had formed a matted mass of the thickness of an inch or more. In 

 turning over the leaves in search of pupse, and also on the exposed 

 surface of the debris, many larval remains were noticed showing a 

 fungus attack. The fungus had joervaded the entire larva, cover- 

 ing its surface and enlarging its diameter with a solid white matter, 

 giving to the distorted object much the appearance of the excrementa 

 of some of the smaller birds. 



The fungus, from collections made, was identified by the State Bot- 

 anist, Prof. C. H. Peck, as identical with one that we had in company 

 observed in driving from Elizabethtown, N. Y., to Keene Valley, on 

 August 1, 1877. Very large numbers of dead larvse were found at 



