INSECT NOTES. 845 



beetle is one-fourth of an inch long, with the entire upper surface 

 of the body pitted and striped longitudinally with dull red and 

 blue. The larvae are said to be miners in the leaves of this 

 golden-rod. As the host plant is something of a nuisance to 

 growers of salt marsh hay, perhaps these insects may be regarded 

 as beneficial. ' 



Chrysomelid Beetle Damaging Young Chestnut Trees. On 

 June loth specimens were received from Dr. Robert T. Morris 

 of New York, who raises nuts on his summer place at Stamford, 

 Conn. Small metallic green beetles a trifle over one^eighth of 

 an inch in length were devouring the leaves and young shoots 

 of choice young chestnut trees of the Japanese species (Castanea 

 Japonica), threatening their destruction. The beetles had the 

 habit of dropping from the leaves or flying away when disturbed. 

 It was finally necessary to resort to spraying with Paris green 

 in order to destroy them. The species proved to be Nodonota 

 puncticollis Say. 



New York Weevil Injuring Pear. On May 26th it was 

 reported that an insect was injuring young pear trees in the 

 orchard of W. A. Henry & Son at Wallingford. Mr. Walden 

 visited the orchard and found that the New York weevil, 

 Ithycerus novehoracensis Forst, was the depredator. The adults 

 were eating into the twigs at the base of the new growth, in 

 some cases nearly severing it. There were from one to three on 

 each tree, and on some of the newly-set trees the new growth had 

 all been destroyed. The injury was confined mostly to the pears, 

 though one plum tree showed the attacks of this insect. 



The New York weevil is a beetle of the family Curculionidce, 

 commonly called "snout beetles" because the head is prolonged 

 forward into a beak or snout, on the end of which the mandibles 

 or jaws are located. In color it is gray or slightly reddish, with 

 whitish, closely appressed pubescence arranged in rows length- 

 wise the body. It is marked with a number of small quadrate 

 black spots, is from one-half to five-eighths of an inch long, and 

 is shown on Plate LIX c. 



The owners sprayed the trees with lead arsenate, and thought 

 that it proved effective, as the beetles soon disappeared. As a 

 rule, the beetles of this family are hard to kill with poisons, and 



