THE ELM LEAF BEETLE. 7 



bushel. The .ehn leaf beetle often occurs with the two-spotted 

 lady beetle in dwellings, simply because they both seek the same 

 kind of a place for hibernation. Correspondents frequently send 

 both species to the writer and desire to know if they are not 

 in some way responsible for the injuries to their carpets. There 

 is, of course, no relationship or similarity in food habits of the 

 three species. The lady beetle is predatory, and in the larval 

 stage destroys numbers of plant lice, and therefore should 

 never be destroyed. The elm leaf beetles should, of course, be 

 killed wherever they are found. 



DESCRIPTION. 



The eggs are bright yellow in color, bottle-shaped, and 

 resemble the eggs of the Colorado potato beetle, but are smaller. 

 They are fastened vertically to the under side of the leaf in 

 clusters of from five to twenty-five arranged in two or three 

 irregular rows. 



When first hatched, the larva is dark or nearly black, covered 

 with tubercles bearing black hairs. As the larva increases in 

 size it molts several times and on becoming full-grown is about 

 one-half inch long, dull yellow in color, with a pair of longi- 

 tudinal black stripes along the back. Head, legs, lateral tuber- 

 cles and two rows of small tubercles between the dorsal stripes 

 are black. The tubercles also bear black hairs. 



The pupa is about one-fourth inch in length and bright 

 orange yellow in color, with black hairs or spines. It is not 

 enclosed in an earthen shell to protect it, but is found at the 

 base of the tree perfectly naked and wholly unprotected. 



The adult beetle is light yel- 

 low in color when it first 

 emerges, but soon takes on a 

 duller hue, and finally becomes 

 a dull olive green. An indis- 

 tinct black stripe extends from 

 the base to the extremity of 

 Fig. 4.— Adult beetles, twice each wing cover just inside of 

 natural size. the margin. Small black spots 



or markings on the pronotum of the thorax vary greatly in size 

 and shape. Legs and antennae are yellow. 



