Kans. St. Agl. Coll. for 1889, pp. 210-212), and called it, after its food 
plant, the bean leaf-beetle. 
May 20, 1890, Mr. M. H. Beckwith sent specimens from Newark, Del., 
with the statement that they were found feeding upon limaand wax beans. 
In the year 1892 the writer published some brief notes on this species, 
with a short review of its past history and mention of two of its wild 
food plants, viz, the different species of bush clover (Lespedeza spp.) 
and the hog peanut (Amphicarpwa monoica Ell.)* (Proc. Ent. Soe. 
Washington, Vol. I, pp. 263, 264). During the same year Mr. H. E. 
Weed reported this insect as very injurious to beans throughout Mis- 
sissippi, and furnished also brief notes on the oviposition and develop- 
ment of the species (Insect Life, Vol. V, p. 110). 
In 1894 Mr. Webster again reported this leaf beetle injurious to the 
foliage of the bean in the southern part of Ohio, and a few days after 
this discovery, which was in May, he observed the same insect in 
Licking County feeding on the leaves of a species of Desmodium, 
which he states, in the North at least, is probably the natural food 
plant (Insect Life, Vol. VII, p. 204). Mr. KE. A. Schwarz, of this Divi- 
sion, found the species during the third week of August of the same 
year injurious to cultivated beggar weed (Desmodium tortuosum) at 
Baton Rouge, La. This plant, which is also called beggar lice and 
tickweed, is of considerable value as a forage crop and soil renovator 
inthe South, 
An unusual feeding habit of this species was observed by Mr. A. D. 
Hopkins, who took the beetle feeding on sap flowing from wounds in 
green bark of yellow locust (Bull. 32, W. Va. Ag]. Ex. St., p. 201). 
OCCURRENCE IN THE YEAR 1897. 
The present year, Mr. W.G. Johnson informs me, this insect was very 
injurious to pole and string beans at College Park, Md., May 19, and 
on a visit to this office on the 28th of the same month stated that the 
species was Still present in injurious numbers in the garden where first 
observed. June 19 the writer’s attention was attracted to the unusual 
number of holes in pole beans growing on the banks of the Chesapeake 
and Ohio Canal at Glen Echo, Md. Observation showed the beetles 
of Cerotoma trifurcata in considerable numbers, mostly on the under 
sides of the leaves. They had evidently been at work for some time, 
judging by the numerous holes in the foliage, but had considerably 
decreased in numbers when the same place was visited a week later. 
At the same time that this discovery was made Mr. I. C, Pratt col- 
lected the insect at Woodstock, Shenandoah County, Va., where it was 
destructive to the bean. 
A special effort was made this year to learn more of the habits and 
injuriousness of the bean leaf-beetle, with the result that the species or 
its work was found in nearly every place visited in the vicinity of 
ow known as falcata comosa L. 
N 
5441—No. 9 5 
