14 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO GARDEN AND ORCHARD CROPS. 

 HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 



JEJpilachna borealis was first described by Fabricius in 1775 (Systema 

 Entoinologia?, p. 82, fide Gemminger & Harold), and the first public 

 mention of its habits that has come to the writer's notice is a short 

 note in the American Farmer's Encyclopedia, edited by Gouverneur 

 Emerson and published by A. O. Moore in 1858. It is there stated in 

 brief that the leaves of squash are preyed upon by "Coccinella borealis." 

 "Although the genus of insects to which this belongs destroys aphides, 

 there are, as Professor Halde[r]man, of Pennsylvania, observes, a few 

 exceptions, among which is the species named, which may be found in 

 the larva and perfect state, eating the leaves of the squash." Halde- 

 man's note, if published, can not be found in any literature at my 

 disposal. This notice was followed by a very good article by Moore in 

 the Country Gentleman for April 1 of the same year. This latter covers 



two columns and is illustrated with 

 seven crude but fairly good original 

 figures. 



The first detailed description of the 

 early stages of the species appears to 

 have been published ten years later 

 by Dr. S. II. Seudder (Ainer. Jour. 

 Hort., vol. in, pp. 80-82, etc.). Shorter 

 notes, however, beariug upon its biol- 

 ^^ljlp^~ ogy appeared in earlier years. In 



1883 Prof. G. H. French also published 



Fig. 2. — Work of JEpilachna borealis on a , ... „ ,, , . .. -..„. 



squash leaf-natural size (original). descriptions of the insect 1U its differ- 



ent stages, and in 1886 Mr. S. S. Kath- 

 von contributed an interesting article containing some original observa- 

 tions. In more recent years the species was made the subject of special 

 study by Prof. J. B. Smith, of the lew Jersey Agricultural Experiment 

 Station. 



A list of the principal writings is given as an appendix to the present 

 paper, to which reference may be made for further information. 



The curious and perhaps characteristic habit of this genus of lady- 

 birds of feeding within a circumscribed space on a leaf is interesting, 

 but for some reason has not received very general notice by entomolo- 

 gists who have had occasion to write of this insect in recent years. On 

 this head Mr. Moore wrote: "It has a singular habit which I have 

 noticed in no other insect. In feeding, the first act is to mark out with 

 its forceps a circle or semicircle, sometimes of great regularity, inclos- 

 ing the portion of the leaf on which it is about to feed. The leaf is 

 then eaten within this mark and nowhere else." 



The object of the insect in thus "staking out a claim," as some one 

 has termed it, is obviously to secure the wilting of the tissues of the 

 leaf previous to its consumption. A portion of a squash leaf showing 

 the work of this insect is reproduced in figure 2. 



