FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 355 



Description. The skeletonized, brown appearance of the foliage of an infested 

 tree in midsummer is very striking and in the Hudson river valley cities and villages 

 this condition is quite apt to be the work of this pest, but in the western part of the 

 state a small flea beetle, Disonycha triangularis Say, occasionally strips a few Ameri- 

 can elms nearly as completely and its work should not be confused with that of this 

 imported elm insect. 



The parent beetle may be recognized by the aid of the colored figures (Plate I, 

 figures 5, 6). This insect is about \ of an inch long with the head, thorax and 

 margin of the wing covers a reddish yellow. The coal black eyes and median spot 

 of the same color on the head are prominent. On the thorax there is a dorsal black 

 spot of variable shape and a pair of lateral ovoid ones. The median black line of 

 the wing covers is separated from the lateral stripes of the same color by greenish 

 yellow. The wing covers or elytra are minutely and irregularly punctured, bear a fine 

 pubescence and at the base of each wing cover there is an elongated black spot in the 

 middle of the greenish yellow stripe. The markings are fairly constant in the beetle 

 but the color is quite variable during life and changes more or less after death. 

 Many beetles emerging from winter quarters have the conspicuous greenish yellow 

 stripes of the wing covers nearly obliterated by black. The antennae or feelers are 

 golden yellow with more or less brownish markings. The legs are yellowish with 

 the tibiae and tarsi marked with brown. The under surface of the head and pro- 

 thorax is yellowish, that of the metathorax and abdomen black. 



The orange yellow eggs are usually deposited in irregular rows side by side, 

 forming clusters of from three to 26 or more on the under surface of the leaf. Each 

 egg is somewhat fusiform, attached vertically by its larger end, with the free 

 extremity tapering to a paler, rounded point (Plate 1, figures 1, la). Under a power- 

 ful lens, the egg shell is seen to be finely reticulated. 



The recently hatched grub is about -fa of an inch long, with the head, thoracic 

 shield, numerous tubercles, hairs and legs jet black. The skin is dark yellow but the 

 tubercles are so large and the hairs so prominent that the prevailing color of the 

 larva at this stage is nearly black. As the grub increases in size and molts, the stiff 

 black hairs become less conspicuous and the yellow color more prominent (Plate 1, 

 figure 2) until the last stage, which is represented at figures 3, 7, plate I. The full 

 grown larva is about half an inch long, more flattened than in the earlier stages, 

 with a broad yellowish stripe dorsally and a narrower stripe of the same color on 

 each side, the yellow stripes being separated by broad dark bands thickly set with 

 tubercles bearing short, dark colored hairs. The dorsal yellow stripe is broken on 

 each side by a subdorsal row of dark tubercles, which increase in size posteriorly. 



