208 HALF HOUBS WITH HN'SECTS. [Packard. 



eggs ; &, larva fully grown and soon after hatching ; c, the 

 beetle itself, Avhich is cream-colored, with three black stripes 

 on each wing cover. Figure 154 represents Doryphora 

 \Q-lineata. The larva is pale yellow, with a reddish tinge, 

 and a lateral row of black dots. 



I quote from Mr. Riley's report the following account of 

 its habits. " In the latitude of St. Louis there are three 

 broods during the 3'ear, the last brood wintering over in the 

 beetle state under ground. They are usually dug up in the 

 spring of the 3'ear in land that had been planted to potatoes 

 the j-ear before. The beetles issue of their own accord from 

 the ground about the first of Ma}^, and the last brood of 

 beetles enters the ground to hibernate during the month of 

 October. Though in general terms this beetle may be said 

 to be three-brooded, yet it may be found at almost any time 

 of the year in all its different stages. This is owing to the 

 fact that the female continues \o deposit her eggs in patches 

 from time to time, covering a period of about forty da^'s ; 

 and also from the fact that among those lai^vae which all 

 batch out in one day, some will develop and become beetles 

 a week and even ten daj's earlier than others. Thus it ma}'' 

 be that some of the late individuals of the third brood pass 

 the winter in the pupa state, though the normal habit is to 

 first transform to beetles. Each female is capable of depos- 

 iting upwards of a thousand eggs before she becomes barren, 

 and in from thirty to forty da3's from the time they were 

 deposited, they will have produced perfect beetles. These 

 beetles are again capable of depositing eggs in about two 

 weeks after issuing from the ground, and thus, in about fifty 

 days after the egg is laid, the offspring begins to propagate." 



This insect should not be confounded with a closely allied 

 species {D. juncta, Fig. loo), which feeds upon the horse- 

 nettle (Solanum CaroUnense) , a wild plant common in the 

 southern and western states. It has not been known to 

 attack the potato. This species differs from the other in 



16 



