Insects 171 



another of Say's discoveries, which we have found on the Uni- 

 versity campus at Boulder. It is oval, with the elytra or wing- 

 covers golden green, but the head, thorax and legs rich purple. 

 Still another of Say's species, found at Boulder, is C. flavomargin- 

 ata; dark, almost black, with the outer margin of the elytra broadly 

 orange tending to red. The sunflower beetle, Zygogramma ex- 

 clamationis, looks like a small potato beetle, but the thorax is 

 without black spots, and the outer stripe on the elytra is broken, 

 looking like an exclamation-mark. This insect is common on 

 sunflowers in Boulder, and sometimes quite destructive. A much 

 smaller and narrower beetle, with cream-colored spots on the 

 steel blue elytra, and red thorax, is destructive to asparagus. It 

 is called Crioceris asparagi, and was introduced from Europe. 

 Its arrival in Colorado is much to be regretted, as formerly we 

 could grow asparagus free from serious pests. 



At first sight, it is often possible to confuse the Lady-birds or 

 Lady-beetles (Coccinellidae) with the Chrysomelidae. They 

 have the tarsi or feet apparently three-jointed, while in the Chry- 

 somelidae there are apparently four joints. While the Chrysome- 

 lidae are plant feeders, the Coccinellidae devour plant lice and 

 scale insects, with few exceptions. The one great exception in 

 our region is the Bean Lady-beetle, Epilachna corrupta, which is 

 extremely destructive to beans along the eastern foothills of 

 Colorado. It is broadly rounded, clay yellow, with black spots. 

 It is supposed to have come from Mexico, but has long been known 

 in New Mexico and Colorado. When Chittenden wrote Bulletin 

 843 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, on the Bean Lady- 

 bird, in 1920, he indicated its occurrence in Colorado, New 

 Mexico, Arizona and western Texas. Suddenly it gained a foot- 

 hold in the Southern States, and Bulletin 221 of the Alabama 

 Experiment Station shows a wide distribution in Alabama, 

 Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and 

 up into Ohio. The beetles spread by flying, and no one knows 

 how much territory they will eventually cover. Wherever they 

 go they are a major pest, comparable to the potato beetle. For- 

 merly, their eastward distribution was undoubtedly limited by 

 the unfavorable conditions of the plains; but having crossed this 

 boundary, presumably in some train, they find few obstacles to 

 rapid spread in the territory they have reached. The common 



