TURNER 



A POTATO BEETLE CHRONICLE 



365 



July 15, 1:35 p. m. 



Isabella has disappeared! I have searched every place for her 

 but in vain. 



Yesterday I found the lar- 

 va of a tortoise-shell beetle, 

 and put him on the plant 

 with the other larvae. Later 

 I found him in the exact 

 spot where I had last seen 

 Isabella. I thought he was 

 a vegetarian or I would 

 never have brought him 

 home. 



Of course I couldn't prove 

 that he had eaten Isabella, 

 but neither could he prove 

 that he hadn't; so I convict- 

 ed him upon circumstantial 

 evidence and threw him 

 Larvae of Colorado potato-beetle into the back yard. 



Now I must be doubly careful of Columbus and Ferdinand for a 

 life history of these beetles must be forth coming if I am to succeed 

 in this course and succeed I must for I have heard dark hints of an 

 ordeal called by the vulgar term "busting" that Cornell students 

 who fail must endure. 



4:00 p. m. 



I have just had a great shock, two shocks in fact. The first 

 was when I saw a fly resembling a house fly hovering near my 

 larvae. I drove him away in haste for there is a fly that lays eggs 

 on the backs of potato larvae. These eggs hatch into parasites 

 which feed upon the potato larvae and kill them during the period 

 of pupation. 



I couldn't see any on either of my little fellows and I rubbed 

 their backs with my finger but could not feel any either. If 

 these larvae develop parasites something is going to happen to 

 that fly. 



The other shock was when I went to brush a little red speck off 

 a paper I was writing on, and just as my hand struck the speck I 

 recognized Columbus. He was rolled over several times but for- 



