40 
Psyche 
[March 
lanum were secured as seed and plants were raised in the 
greenhouse. These were then set out in the open 2 at the time 
the first seasonal brood of beetles appeared and a number of 
adults (ten) were placed on the foliage of each plant. From 
these preliminary tests it was at once evident that there was 
a wide variation in the readiness with which the beetles fed 
upon the several species of Solanum that were offered to 
them. Omitting the potato which was suffering heavily from 
beetle feeding throughout the neighborhood at that time, 
several species were greedily accepted and voraciously fed 
upon. Among the species tested these were notably S. ( An - 
drocera) rostratum, S. dulcamara , S. melongena (garden 
egg-plant), wonderberry 3 , S. marginatum, and S. subinerme. 
Several were absolutely refused, including S. nigrum, S. 
pseudo capsicum, S. barbisetum, S. granuloso-leprosum, the 
garden tomato (Ly coper sicum esculentum) and three un- 
identified Panamanian species. 
Intermediate with reference to feeding were S. pyracan- 
thum, S. atropurpureum and an unidentified Panamanian 
species. 
As a result of these preliminary tests nine species were 
selected for further experimentation, as follows : “wonder- 
berry”, S. ( Androcera ) rostratum, S. subinerme, S. mar- 
ginatum, S. dulcamara, S. torvum, S. barbisetum, S. melon- 
gena and Lycopersicum esculentum. 
The last-mentioned species was added, although the 
beetles had previously refused to feed upon it, because of an 
infestation called to my attention by Professor W. E. Castle, 
who noticed the familiar beetles and larvse destroying the 
2 On the grounds of the Bussey Institution at Forest Hills, Boston, 
Mass, where the entomological laboratories of Harvard University were 
located at that time. 
3 This plant was secured from a seedsman as Luther Burbank’s 
“Wonderberry” which is according to botanists a form of Solanum 
nigrum. However, as noted below, the potato-beetle does not feed on 
the wild form of this species and cannot develop on it, a fact also at- 
tested by Trouvelot (’33) and his co-workers who attempted unsuc- 
cessfully to rear this insect in France on European plants of this 
cosmopolitan Solanum. The wonderberry is said to have originated as 
a hybrid between S. villosum and £. guineense (cf. Whitson & Williams, 
“Luther Burbank,” vol. 6, pp. 105-133 (1914). The latter name has 
been applied to both S. nigrum and £. aggregatum, so the nativity of 
the wonderberry is hopelessly shrouded in doubt, but it appears that it 
is not identical with S. nigrum as has been assumed. 
