238 FIFTH REPORT OP TIIK ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
22. The ANTIOI'A BUTTERFLY. 
FflMCfM (iittiojKi l l.iim.ius). 
Order LXPIDOPTBRA ; Family PaPXLIOHID .1 . 
Bometimea oooarring oo the flm, bat more oommoa on the willow ; ■ Btontly-spined 
caterpillar, with a black hotly spotted minutely with whin-, wii h ■ row of eight dark 
brick-red spots od the back ; changing to ■ dark brown chrysalis, with large tawny 
spots around the tubercles <>n the back. The butterfly purplish hrown ahove, with a 
broad buff-yellow border in which is a row of pah- blue spots. Plying from March 
till .June, and again from the middle of August until late autumn. 
Its food plants are: elm, white birch, poplar, silver poplar, willow. 
It is two-brooded, and many of the late emerging specimens hibernate 
and may often be seen ou warm days in January or February flitting 
about. The larvae are often attacked by Tachinids and many pupae are 
destroyed by Pteromalus vanessce, which watches her chance during 
pupatiou. They are also destroyed by Podisus spinosus. (Riley's MS. 
notes.) 
23. The great elm-leaf beetle. 
Monoeesta corijU (Say). 
Order Coleopteka ; Family Chrysomelid^e. 
Occasionally destructive to the red or slippery elm in the Middle States ; a pale yel- 
lowish heetle more than half an inch long, with the wing-covers twice spotted with 
blue : laying its yellow eggs in a cluster on the under side of the leaf in June, the 
grub appearing a week later, being brown or yellowish-brown, and eating the leaves 
into rags ; towards the eudof July or early in August entering the ground, forming an 
oval cavity a few inches below the surface ; assuming the pupa state a week before 
they appear as beetles in June. (Riley.) 
In his report as U. S. Entomologist for 1878, Professor Riley calls at- 
tention to a much larger beetle than the imported elm-leaf beetle, but 
having very similar habits, and which has proved extremely destructive 
to the red or slippery elm in Missouri during the past few years : 
The sudden appearance of this iusect in such excessive numbers as to absolutely 
strip all the elms of this species through the woods for many miles must be looked 
upon as phenomenal; for while J. F. Melsheimer reported the beetle many years ago as 
sufficiently numerous in some parts of Virginia to completely defoliate in a short time 
the hazel (Corylua amrrieanus),* the species is generally considered a rarity in ento- 
mological cabinets. Nor can I find that anything has been recorded of its adoles- 
cent stages. The beetle was first described by Say (he. cit.) as (ialeruca coryli, and 
is the only North American species of the genus Monoeesta to which it is now referred, 
the genus beiug more fully represented in Central and South America. The color is 
pale clay-yellow, with two dark, bluish spots on each wing-cover. These spots are 
variable in size, and sometimes entirely wanting. 
My attention was first called to the injuries of this larva some three years ago by 
Mr. George W. Letterman, of Allentown, Mo, and I have since been able to trace 
the lull natural history of the species as it is given below. 
The parent beetles (Fig. 83, jj) make their first appearance during the month 
of June, when they may usually be found pairing on the tree first mentioned. The 
•AuctoreS&y, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sc, Phil., Ill, 16J4. 
