COLEOPTERA. Ill 



tenths of an inch. In this and the three following species the tho- 

 rax is very much narrowed before, and the wing-covers are long 

 and narrow, and cover the whole of the back. The striped Can- 

 tharis is comparatively rare in New England ; but in the Middle 

 States it often appears in great numbers, and does much mischief 

 in potato-fields and gardens, eating up not only the leaves of the 

 potato, but those of many other vegetables. The habits of this 

 kind of Cantharis are similar to those of the following species. 



There is a large blistering-beetle which is very common on 

 the virgin's bower (Clematis Virginiana), a trailing plant, which 

 grows wild in the fields, and is often cultivated for covering 

 arbors. I have sometimes seen this plant completely stripped of 

 its leaves by these insects, during the month of August. They 

 are very shy, and when disturbed fall immediately from the leaves, 

 and attempt to conceal themselves among the grass. They most 

 commonly resort to the low branches of the Clematis, or those 

 that trail upon the ground, and more rarely attack the upper parts 

 of the vine. They also eat the leaves of various kinds of Ranun- 

 culus or buttercups, and, in the Middle and Southern States, those 

 of Clematis viorna and crispa. This beetle is the Cantharis mar- 

 ginata of Olivier, or margined Cantharis. It measures six or seven 

 tenths of an inch in length. Its head and thorax are thickly cov- 

 ered with short gray down, and have a black spot on the upper side 

 of each ; the wing-covers are black, with a very narrow gray edg- 

 ing ; and the under-side of the body and the legs are also gray. 



The most destructive kind of Cantharis, found in Massachu- 

 setts, is of a more slender form than the preceding, and measures 

 only from five and a half to six tenths of an inch in length. Its 

 antennae and feet are black, and all the rest of its body is ashen 

 gray, being thickly covered with a very short down of that color. 

 Hence it is called Cantharis cinerea*, or the ash-colored Can- 

 tharis. When the insect is rubbed, the ash-colored substance 

 comes off, leaving the surface black. It begins to appear in gar- 

 dens about the twentieth of June, and is very fond of the leaves of 

 the English bean, which it sometimes entirely destroys. It is 

 also occasionally found in considerable numbers on potato-vines ; 



* Lytta cinerea, Fabricius. 



