THE CHERRY LEAF-BEETLE. 91 



mentioned species were received from Mr. M. S. Haslett, who wrote 

 under date of June 5 that this insect was infesting and doing consid- 

 erable damage to the foliage of young peach trees at Spruce Creek, 

 Huntington County, Pa. 



Four days later Mr. Charles A. Heilman wrote from Lebanon, Leba- 

 non County, Pa., sending specimens of the beetle with the statement 

 that they were found abundantly on peach trees, the leaves of which 

 they injure by pitting them full of small holes. Our correspondent had 

 been through a peach orchard 3 miles west of his town and had found 

 only one of the beetles, while in the town the beetles were to be seen 

 by thousands on single trees during the two days previous to his 

 writing. 



The past year it was injurious to cherry trees at Corning, N. Y., as 

 reported by Mr. E. P. Felt (Bui. N. Y. St. Mus., vol. V, p. 235; Bui. 17, 

 n. s., Div. Ent., p. 20), and was said by Dr. J. B. Smith to have been 

 found on peach trees in Pennsylvania (1. c, p. 23). 



OTHER RECORDS: FOOD HABITS. 



The cherry leaf beetle was first noticed causing damage to cultivated 

 cherry trees in 1894 at Bellaire, Mich. (G-. C. Davis, Insect Life, vol. 

 Vii, p. 200.) The following year it attacked the foliage of cherry trees 

 at Ausable Forks, N. Y. (Lintner, 11th Beport, Insects of New York, 

 pp. 197, 198.) 



A short illustrated account of this insect is given by Mr. R. H. Pettit 

 in a bulletin entitled Some Insects of the Year in 1897. (Bui. 160, 

 Mich. St. Ag. Coll. Expt. Sta., p. 427.) Specific mention is not made of 

 attack committed that year, but the title would imply that such injury 

 had been noted. In the original case of injury reported, the presence 

 of the insect was also noted on wild cherry in the immedate vicinity. 



In the Third Annual Beport of the Pennsylvania Department of 

 Agriculture, Division of Forestry, for 1897 (1898), pp. 106, 107, Mr. 

 Charles W. Johnson gives a short account of this species. He says: 

 " Myriads of this beetle and its larvae were observed during the first 

 week of September devouring the leaves of the 'fire cherry' {Prunus 

 pennsylvanica) at Ricketts, Wyoming County, Pa." 



There is little doubt that the species described under the name of 

 Galeruca sanguinea in Dr. Packard's Fifth Beport on Insects Injurious 

 to Forest and Shade Trees (p. 529) as attacking wild cherry is in reality 

 GaJerucella cavicollis, as has already been stated. (Insect Life, vol. IV, p. 

 94.) The species is also mentioned by Dr. Hamilton as occurring on 

 Prunus. (Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, vol. xxn, p. 371.) 



The injurious occurrences are of interest as examples of the change 

 of habit of a species of insect from a wild to a cultivated plant of the 

 same genus (Prunus), and from this to a cultivated plant of a closely 

 related genus ( Amygdalus). Until 1894 it will be noted no other food 

 plant of the species other than wild cherry was known, and until the 





