100 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



body, and implanted close together on the forehead ; slender legs, 

 which are nearly equal in size, and claws split at the end. They 

 fly mostly by day, and are, by nature, either very timid or very 

 cunning, for, when we attempt to take hold of them, they draw up 

 their legs, and fall to the ground. They sometimes do great 

 injury to plants, eating large holes in the leaves, or consuming 

 entirely those that are young and tender. The larvae are rather 

 short cylindrical grubs, generally of a blackish color, and are pro- 

 vided with six legs. They live and feed together in swarms, and 

 sometimes appear in very great numbers on the leaves of plants, 

 committing ravages, at these times, as extensive as those of the 

 most destructive caterpillars. This was the case in 1S37 at 

 Sevres, in France, and in 1838 and 1839 in Baltimore and its 

 vicinity, where the elm-trees were entirely stripped of their leaves 

 during midsummer by swarms of the larvae of Galeruca Calmari- 

 ensis ; and, in the latter place, after the trees had begun to revive, 

 and were clothed with fresh leaves, they were again attacked by 

 new broods of these noxious grubs. These insects, which were 

 undoubtedly introduced into America with the European elm, are 

 as yet unknown in the New England States. The eggs of the 

 Galerucians are generally laid in little clusters or rows along the 

 veins of the leaves, and those of the elm Galeruca are of a yel- 

 low color. The pupa state of some species occurs on the leaves, 

 of others in the ground ; and some of the larvee live also in the 

 ground on the roots of plants. This is probably the case with 

 those of the cucumber-beetle. This destructive insect is the 

 Galeruca viitata* , or striped Galeruca, generally known here by 

 the names of striped bug and cucumber-bug. It is of a light yellow 

 color above, with a black head, and a broad black stripe on each 

 wing-cover, the inner edge or suture of which is also black, form- 

 ing a third narrower stripe down the middle of the back ; the ab- 

 domen, the greater part of the fore-legs, and the knees and feet 

 of the other legs, are black. It is rather less than one fifth of an 

 inch long. Early in the spring it devours the tender leaves of 

 various plants. I have found it often on those of our Aronias, 

 Amelanchier botryapium and ovalis, and Pyms arbutifolia, to- 



* Crioceris viitata of Fabricius. 



