THE BLUE-WINGED CHBYSOMELA. 133 



spots on the sides, and a broad jagged stripe along the suture 

 or inner edges ; the antennas and legs are rust-red, and the 

 wings are rose-colored. It is a most beautiful object when 

 flying, with its silvery wing-covers, embossed with green, 

 raised up, and its rose-red wings spread out beneath them. 

 These beetles inhabit the lime or linden QTilia Americana), 

 and the elm, upon which they may be found in April, May, 

 and June, and a second brood of them in September and 

 October. They pass the winter in holes, and under leaves 

 and moss. The trees on which they live are sometimes a 

 good deal injured by them and by their larvje (Fig. 

 60). The latter are hatched from eggs laid by the 

 beetles on the leaves in the spring, and come to 

 their growth towards the end of June. They are 

 then about six tenths of an inch long, of a white 

 color, with a black line along the top of the back, and a row 

 of small square black spots on each side of the body ; the 

 head is horny and of an ochre-yellow color. Like the grubs 

 of the preceding species, these are short, and very thick, the 

 back arching upwards very much in the middle. I believe 

 that they go into the ground to turn to pupae. Should they 

 become so numerous as seriously to injure the lime and elm 

 trees, it may be found useful to throw decoctions of tobacco 

 or of walnut-leaves on the trees by means of a garden or 

 fire engine, a method which has been employed with good 

 effect for the destruction of the larvae of Galeruca Cal- 

 mariensis. 



The most common leaf-beetle of the family under consid- 

 eration is the blue-winged Chrysomela, or jj^ gj, 

 Cfhrysomela cceruleipennis of Say (Fig. 61), 

 an insect hardly distinct from the European 

 Chrysomela Polygoni, and like the latter it 

 lives in great numbers on the common knot- 

 grass (^Polygonum aviculare'), which it com- 

 pletely strips of its leaves two or three times 

 in the course of the summer. This httle 



