THE BLUE-WINGED CHRYSOMELA. 
133 
Fig. 60. 
spots on the sides, and a broad jagged stripe along the suture 
or inner edges ; the antennae and legs are rust-red, and the 
wings are rose-colored. It is a most beautiful object wdien 
flying, with its silvery wing-covers, embossed with green, 
raised up, and its rose-red wings spread out beneath them. 
These beetles inhabit the lime or linden {Tilia Americana^^ 
and the elm, upon which they may be found in April, INIay, 
and June, and a second brood of them in September and 
October. They pass the winter in holes, and under leaves 
and moss. The trees on which they live are sometimes a 
good deal injured by them and by their larva© (Fig. 
60). The latter are hatched from eggs laid by the 
beetles on the leaves in the spring, and come to 
their growth towards the end of June. They are 
then about six tenths of an inch long, of a white 
color, with a black line along the top of the back, and a row 
of small square black spots on each side of the body; the 
head is horny and of an ochre-yellow color. Like the grubs 
of the preceding species, these are short, and veiy thick, the 
back arching upwards very much in the middle. I believe 
that they go into the ground to turn to pupa©. Should they 
become so numerous as seriously to injure the lime and elm 
trees, it may be found useful to throw decoctions of tobacco 
or of walnut-leaves on the trees by means of a garden or 
fire engine, a method which has been employed with good 
effect for the destruction of the larva© of Galeruca Cal- 
mariensis. 
The most common leaf-beetle of the family under consid¬ 
eration is the blue-winged Chrysomela, or 
(Jhrysomela cceruleipennis of Say (Fig. 61), 
an-insect hardly distinct from the European 
Chrysomela Polygons and like the latter it 
lives in great numbers on the common knot¬ 
grass (^Polygonum aviculare').^ which it com¬ 
pletely strips of its leaves two or three times 
in the course of the summer. This little 
Fig. 61. 
