428 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
Larva.— July 19, the larva is .10 inch long, or less, and of a pale color. In the 
spring when it assumes the imago Mat.- it is much larger, and differs but little from 
other larva- belonging to this genus. 
Tin bteth.— In Mecas the claws differ from those of Sapcrda (in which they are 
usually simple) in being feebly toothed OT cleft. Body black, unspotted, cylindrical. 
OOTeied with short prostrate hair, which conceals the punctures. Palpi black; 
•ntenna rather shorter than the body, and, excepting the bam] joints, annulate with 
cinereous and black. Thorax cylindric, diameters subequal. Elytra entire and 
subacute at the tip, which is equally antennated from the suture and exterior mar- 
gins. Length a little less than half an inch. (Say.) 
AFFECTING THE LEAVES. 
10. The streaked cottonwood lkaf-beetle. 
Lina teripta (Fabricius). 
Order Coleoptera ; family Chrysomelipj:. 
An abundant beetle, infesting the leaves of the cottonwood and other species of 
ropuhts and of willows throughout the West to Colorado, and south to Louisiana, 
V a V I 
Fig. 157.— Streaked cottonwood beetle; a. beetle, 
normal form : b. c, d, e, showing variations. — Af- 
ter Rilev . 
destroying vast groves ; three annual broods; the larva peculiar from emitting from 
the tips of its tuberculous spines a pungent milky fluid: transforming on the leaf, 
the pupa remaining in the partially cast-off larva skin ; the beetle usually black on 
the prothorax, with the sides yellow and the wing-covers yellowish, with three inter- 
rupted lines of black or bluish spots. It may be destroyed by syringing the trees with 
a wet preparation of London purple or Paris green. (Riley, Amer. Ent., iii, p. 159.) 
Iu 1884 fresh attention was called to the ravages of this beetle in 
portions of Nebraska and Dakota, which led to the publication by Pro- 
fessor Riley of an extended account of the insect in his report as U. S. 
Eutomologist for 1884, which we copy, as follows: 
During the past season the streaked cottonwood leaf- beetle has done great damage 
in portions of Nebraska and Dakota. Appearing in enormous numbers, it has entirely 
defoliated many thousands of trees, and has destroyed many plantations of young 
saplings. The strip of country over which it has been particularly injurious has 
been along the banks of the Missouri River in Dakota, as far west as its junction 
with the Niobrara, and thence down through Nebraska to the Platte, as far west as 
Dawson County. As a sample of the mauy communications which have been re- 
ceived during the summer from the infested region, we introduce the following letter, 
noticing the habits of this beetle, which was forwarded from the General Land 
Office: 
