EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 



163 



late in the season. The appearance of a blister-beetle is shown in fig. 

 9, long, slender, and with graceful legs and form, a little more than 

 half an inch in length. These four species dififer markedly in color. 

 The one figured, is known as the old-fashioned potato-beetle because of 

 its well-known love for that plant. It is striped, yellow and black, with 

 black legs. The black and grey species look very much like the striped 

 one except for the color, and the margined beetle is dead black in color 

 with the margins of the wing-covers grey. They all eat the foliage of 

 beets when adult and often commit serious depredations. One word 

 in extenuation before pronouncing sentence of death on these small 



Fig. 9. — Old-fashioned potato beetle, enlarged. (Author's illustration.) 



malefactors. Theii* larval stages, in all our common species except the 

 steel-blue one, are passed in devouring the eggs of grasshoppers. In 

 fact, the young blister-beetles of this group are not known to feed on 

 anything else. The fact that the eggs of grasshoppers are laid in pods 

 covered with water-tight shells, and containing from twenty to thirty 

 eggs, makes it possible for the beetles to do a great deal of damage to the 

 contents of the pods by devouring part of the eggs. If all are not eaten, 

 fermentation and the consequent loss of the rest of the batch are sure 

 to follow. From this we see that it is possible for the beetle to attain 



