REPORT OF TEE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 233 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



midsummer in eastern Canada was credited with a considerable shortage in the crop, 

 but in some parts of western Ontario it is particularly noted that the potatoes put in 

 late have yielded well. 



The Colorado Potato Beetle has been very destructive in many places and was 

 particularly abundant in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, where the potatoes 

 were not sprayed with Paris green or other poison. In Manitoba and the North-west 

 Territories at a few points some injury was done by the Black Blister-beetle (Epicauta 

 Pennsylvanica, DeG.). As is usually the case, however, the visitations were of short 

 duration. I was informed by the Hon. Pt. P. Eoblin of one instance in which a con- 

 siderable swarm of these beetles on a neighbour's farm was cleared from a potato 

 patch by a flock of 25 or 30 chickens. No ill effects to the chickens were noticed, 

 which seems somewhat surprising.- The Black Blister-beetles were abundant on potato 

 patches m the city of Winnipeg and were attracting much notice during the first 

 week of July, but had all disappeared before the middle of the month. 



The Striped Blister-beetle {Epicauta viltata, Pab.). — Another beetle which this 

 year has shown up far more abundantly than is usually the case is the Striped Blister- 

 beetle, of which specimens have been sent in from a few places in 

 western Ontario, as injurious to potatoes, tomatoes, mangels and beets. 

 ' Queenston, Ont., July 20. — I send you some striped beetles from 

 a neighbouring farm. They are destroying tomatoes, potatoes, &c. These 

 insects are very wary, and are gregarious in habit.' — W. O. Burgess. 



' Cedar Springs, Out., July 21. — I send specimens of a kind of beetle 

 which is destroying my mangels. They come in swarms and eat the 

 leaves. There are beets in the same patch, but they have not touched 

 them yet. Do you think they will?' — Wm. Clayton, Sr. 



' Stromness, Out., Aug. 10. — Please find inclosed beetles that are eat- 



StriDed^ The * n *= up ^ ee ^ s ' potatoes and tomatoes. They are in gardens in swarms, and 



Blister-beetle, you can drive them like sheep. They are voracious eaters, and have 



nearly destroyed our beets. We sprayed them with Paris green, and it 



appears to have killed them. What are they ? I never noticed them until this summer. 



Please give me some information on the subject.'— Henry E. Dickout. 



The Striped Blister-beetle is a narrow, soft-bodied beetle about half an inch in 

 length, with blackish wing-cases, each of which is margined with yellow and has a 

 yellow stripe down the centre. The head and thorax are also dark, with yellow mark- 

 ings. The legs are long and slender, and the beetles are, as mentioned above, extremely 

 active, Hying readily from their food plant when approached. This habit is of much 

 use in preventing these Striped Blister-beetles from destroying crops. 



Like all the rest of its family, this species, in the larval form, is a predaceous 

 parasite on the eggs of grasshoppers. It is, therefore, undesirable to destroy the 

 beetles if this can be avoided. As is the case with nearly all leaf-eating insects, this 

 one can be destroyed by spraying the crops with a poisonous mixture, such as Paris 

 green and other arsenites. Prof. Webster found that Bordeaux mixture sprayed over 

 plants kept these beetles away, and that they could be readily killed if whale-oil soap 

 were sprayed on them. Owing, however, to the readiness witli which they take flight 

 when approached, an operation known by the name of driving' has been adopted in 

 those parts of the United States where this species occurs, and where it is far more 

 abundant than has ever been the case in Canada. In my experience, this insect lias 

 been very seldom mentioned as a crop pest in the Dominion, and it is worthy of re- 

 mark that considerable injury was done by grasshoppers to crops in that part of 

 Ontario, from which the above reports were received. 'Driving' consists simply of 

 several people walking across an infested field witli branches, or other conspicuous 

 objects in their hands, waving them from side to side and driving these easily dis- 

 turbed beetles ahead of them until they come to the edge of the crop, where they will 

 disperse and seldom return. A character which is often noticed with these beetles 

 is that they appear in large numbers suddenly, which is due to the fact that the larvae 



