October, ’20] 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES 
433 
sponsible. It was also noted that the beetles when confined exclusively with apple 
fruits oviposited in them. 
J. L. King. 
Chambersburg Laboratory, 
Pennsylvania Bureau of Plant Industry. 
Flea-Beetle Injury to Apples. A species of flea-beetle, identified as Nodonota 
puncticollis Say, has caused considerable injury in a few apple orchards in the vicinity 
of Chambersburg, Pa., during the season of 1920. 
The beetle was first noticed on the apple foliage in a weedy orchard on the 2nd of 
June. At that time slight feeding injuries were observed on the leaves but none on 
the fruits. On the 14th of June, however, the writer received a hurry call to visit an 
orchard where “bugs were eating up the apples” and found upon entering the orchard 
that the report was not greatly exaggerated and that the flea-beetle was responsible 
for the damage. 
The injury was mostly superficial, the skin of the apples being chewed away in 
places and then small shallow pits eaten out of the flesh. In many cases, however, 
rather large cavities were eaten in the apples and especially so where apples were in 
contact with each other. Feeding injury was also noted on the leaves and in a few 
places the leaves were brown in color due to the many small areas of leaf surface which 
had been eaten away. 
To prove whether the injury to the fruits was primary or followed some other 
insect injury or abrasion the writer caged specimens of the beetle with perfect apples 
and found that while the beetles preferred to begin feeding where the skin was broken, 
they were not deterred by perfect fruits. 
Flea-beetle injury was noted subsequently in a number of orchards but in only the 
one orchard was it thought serious enough to require a controlling spray of Bordeaux 
mixture and arsenate of lead. As for the effects of the spray it was impossible to 
judge definitely due to the lateness of the application. In all cases, orchards showing 
injury were more or less neglected and weedy. During the remainder of June num¬ 
bers of the beetles were observed on most of the common weeds along the roadsides 
and in the fields. 
J. R. Stear. 
Chambersburg Laboratory, 
Pennsylvania Bureau of Plant Industry. 
Frenatae, the Entomological Club of the University of Minnesota holds regular 
meetings every Tuesday, throughout the year, at 4.30 p. m. in the entomological 
laboratories, University Farm, St. Paul. During the summer special field trips will 
he arranged. Any entomologists visiting the Twin Cities are invited to attend and 
to take part in these meetings. Among the visitors and speakers of the past year 
have been—H. E. Ewing of the National Museum; W. E. Dove, Bureau of Entomol¬ 
ogy; T. B. McGath, Mayo Institute; H. E. Strickland, Canadian Entomological 
Service; Professor H. L. Osborn, Hamline University, and Professor Sadao Yoshida, 
Osaka, Japan. Dr. B. P. Lawson of the Entomological Department, University of 
Kansas will give the course in Elementary Economic Entomology in the summer 
school of the University of Minnesota. This work will be offered from June 21 to 
July 30. More specialized courses will be offered for various members of the depart¬ 
ment not only during the period of the regular session, but throughout the summer. 
