1 66 



ELEMENTARY ENTOMOLOGY 



pantries, and wherever meal is stored. The larvae are elongate, 

 brown, and horny, very much resembling wire-worms, and are 



kept by bird fanciers for feeding song 

 birds in winter. The beetle is from one 

 half to three fourths of an inch long, dark 

 brown, with square prothorax and ridged 

 wing-covers. 



The blister-beetles (Meloidae) are so 

 called because their juices cause a blis- 

 tering of the human skin, and when 

 dried and powdered they were formerly 

 much used by phy- 

 sicians for blister- 



FIG. 245. The black blister- ing. They are Soft- 

 beetle. (Enlarged) bodied bee tles with 



(After Chittenden United States the head prom i nent 

 Department of Agriculture) 



and attached to the 



thorax by a very distinct neck. The elytra 



are flexible and rounded posteriorly, so 



that usually they do not cover the tip 



of the abdomen, 

 while in some forms 

 the wing-covers are 

 quite short and the 

 wings are lacking. 

 Our common spe- 

 cies are about half 



an inch long, dull gray or blackish, often 

 marked with yellow stripes, while others 

 are of a brilliant metallic bronze, green, 

 or blue. The adults often appear in im- 

 mense swarms and ruin garden crops. 

 The striped blister-beetle (Epicauta vit- 

 tata] was a common pest of potatoes 

 before the advent of the Colorado beetle, 

 and is known as the ' ' old-fashioned potato- 

 bug." The larvae have a very complicated 

 metamorphosis, owing to their peculiar 



FIG. 246. The ash-gray 

 blister-beetle. (Twice nat- 

 ural size) 



(After Chittenden, United 

 States Department of Agri- 

 culture) 



FIG. 247. The white-pine 

 weevil (Pissodes strobi). (En- 

 larged and natural size) 



(After Hopkins, United States 

 Department of Agriculture) 



