rfiTPKODtroTioir. 



11 



Sweden. 



Phaedon eocJilearice, F. 



In 1913-14, A. Tullgren studied the life-history of this beetle 

 in Sweden, where it does considerable damage to horse-radish. 

 The adults hibernate in winter, appearing in spring and ovi- 

 positing in June. At the end of this month young larvae appear, 

 and in about three weeks they are full-grown, the pupation period 

 being about a fortnight. The new generation of beetles appears 

 at the beginning of August, the succeeding generation being 

 adult at the end of September. The eggs are laid exclusively on 

 the underside of the leaves, generally singly, in small pockets 

 made by the ovipositor of the female. The larvae are sluggish, but 

 the beetles are very active. The original host-plants of this insect 

 are probably wild species of Nasturtium % Cardamine and Cochlearia, 

 but it has also been recorded from a plant belonging to another 

 family, Veronica beccabunga. It also attacks turnip and cabbage. 



England. 



Phytodeeta viminalis, L. 



The following is an outline of the life-history of the insect, 

 which feeds on sallow and is sometimes viviparous (see below) : 

 larvae laid May 15th, full-fed June 2nd, pupated June 8th ; adults 

 emerged June 20th. They remain for the whole of the rest of the 

 year on the sallows without producing a second generation, and 

 hibernate probably among the dead leaves etc. on the surface of 

 the ground, emerging again in the following spring, when they 

 pair and lay the larvae of the next generation. The original 

 parents, having laid their young in May, survive and continue 

 feeding for the rest of the year, so that from the end of June 

 onwards there are adults of two generations together on the plants. 

 Several females which laid young in May 1913, and which there- 

 fore emerged from the pupa in June 1912, were still alive in 

 November 1913, their adult life having lasted at least eighteen 

 months. The larvae when first laid are orange-yellow, but they 

 rapidly darken and become quite black. The larvae, at least when 

 older, possess a pair of dorsal extrusible processes situated close 

 together between the seventh and eighth abdominal segments ; 

 they are pink in colour and, when fully extended, about one- 

 twelfth of an inch in length ; when the larva is disturbed they are 

 shot out (compare the extrusible vesicles on the back of the 

 larvae of Chrysomela popidi, described above, and the structure and 

 habits of Pajnlio-lnrwsd). The adult has the habit of sitting at the 

 base of a leaf with its head pressed right into the axil, and of 

 falling to the ground when disturbed. The above observations 

 were made by 0. B. Williams ('Entomologist,' 1914, p. 249). 



Viviparity in Chrysomeli^e. 

 The phenomenon of giving birth to living larvae instead of 

 laying eggs has been recorded in this subfamily by several writers 



