88o 



Rural School Leaflet 



Appearance of the beetle. — The adult insect is called a beetle because 

 it has two hard, homy wing covers that close over and hide the true thin 

 wings, the chief organs of flight. The beetle is a robust insect nearly half 

 an inch long, and has a ground color of ocherous yellow, almost reddish 

 yellow at times. Each wing cover is ornamented with five black lines 



running lengthwise. The thorax is marked 

 with ten or more dark spots, while the head is 

 small and bears one dark three-cornered spot. 

 The mouth parts of the beetle consist of 

 two pairs of jaws, the upper pair being dark- 

 colored, hard, and homy. These enable the 

 insect to bite off bits of leaves and stems, 



which it chews and 

 swallows. 



Story of its life. — In 



the fall of the year the 



adult beetles burrow into 



the ground, where they 



pass the winter. They 



usually go below the 



surface eight or ten 



inches, but sometim-es 



they are found several 



feet underground. 



Occasionally in- 

 dividuals hide 

 aw^ay beneath piles 

 of rubbish. In the 

 spring the beetles 

 work their way out 

 of the ground very 

 early and during 

 warm days make 

 Potato stalk vnth beetle at work: a, beetle; b, grub, or " slug "; c, eggs long flights, SO that 



they are well dis- 

 tributed over the fields and ready for the potato plants as soon as they push 

 through the soil. After feeding a few days, the mother beetles begin to de- 

 posit their orange-colored eggs in clusters on the leaves. The eggs hatch in 

 a week or ten days, depending on the temperature, and the young grubs 

 begin at once to eat the leaves. The grubs have soft, red bodies, with 

 two rows of dark spots along each side. They also have biting mouth- 

 parts and are always apparently very hungry. They eat most of the 



