Report of the State Entomologist. 263 



about a lialf-iuch in length, and tapering toward each end. Of a 

 number gathered and fed upon the golden rod, a half dozen had 

 changed to the pupa state, ten days thereafter. On the fifteenth July, 

 the beetles were disclosed, and proved to be one of the Chrysomelidce, 

 viz., Trirhabda Canadensis (Kirby). The ochre-yellow stripes of the 

 elytra, at first quite bright, gradually dulled in their drying. 



Numbers of the beetle were observed, on September eighth, feed- 

 ing upon the leaves of the golden rod. When approached, they drop 

 to the ground and lie motionless. Several ]3airs were in copula, and 

 all of the females had the abdomen enormously distended with eggs. 

 Diabrotica vittata (Fabr.) was also very abundant in the flowers of 

 the plant, where it was feeding upon the pollen. 



T. Canadensis has also been observed, abundantly, at Keene Valley, 

 Essex county, N. Y., on golden rods, late in Jixly and early in August. 

 According to Dr. LeConte, it is a common insect, extending from 

 Lake Superior and the Mississippi river to the Pacific. It was origi- 

 nally described by Kirby, in his Fauna Boreali Americana, from collec- 

 tions made in Canada by Dr. Bigsby. 



Galeetjca xanthomel^na (Sch.). — Examples of this beetle, so exceed- 

 ingly destructive to elm trees, were received from Poughkeepsie, N. T., 

 where they had recently made their appearance. It was first observed 

 about fifty years ago, in the vicinity of Baltimore, Md., and not long 

 thereafter, it became a serious nuisance in Washington, D. C, and in 

 New Jersey. During the last few years it has extended its ravages to 

 Long Island and Westchester county, N. Y., where by its complete 

 defoliation of large and beautiful elms, and by the myriads of the dis- 

 gusting larvse swarming on the trunks of the trees, it became a 

 common object of observation and execration. It has continued to 

 extend itself slowly in this State (and in Massachusetts), until we have 

 it now in Poughkeepsie, midway between New York and Albany, 

 which is the most northern locality within the State from which it 

 has been reported. 



The beetle and its operations upon the leaves of the elm, are shown 

 in Figure 59, taken from the Report of the Dejjartment of Agriculture 

 for 1883, in which the Entomologist, Professor Riley, has given 

 the habits and natural history of the insect, the best remedies for it, 

 and exj)eriments made at Washington, with insecticides for its control. 

 The same account has been reprinted as Bulletin No. 6, of the Division 

 of Entomology, and also in Bulletin No. 10, of the Division — " Our 

 Shade Trees and their Insect Defoliators." Copies of this last publica- 



