170 



PEA-WEEVIL BEETLES. 



Although the beetles are very beautiful, the larvae are as 

 nasty; they are Mat, with long spines along the margins, and in 

 addition they possess a forked appendage at the posterior end, 

 which serves a very filthy purpose. It is bent forward over the 

 back, and to it are attached the cast-off skins of the larva and also 

 its excrement. The fork carrying such material is borne like an 

 umbrella. In New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, where these 

 insects abound in the sweet-potato fields, the larvae have received 

 the name "peddlers," since they carry a "pack." When ready 

 to change to a pupa the larva fastens the posterior end of its 

 body to the underside of a leaf, and now the skin splits open, and 

 is forced back, exposing a pupa, which soon gives forth a beetle. 

 Wherever such beetles are numerous the young plants of the 

 sweet-potato should be dipped into arsenate of lead before they 

 are set out. The solution should be fifteen ounces to fifty gallons 

 of water. 



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. 8 T x 



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Fig. 175. — Cassida bivittata. Say. 

 Alter Riley. 



Fig. 176.— Chelymorpha argus, Licht. 

 After Packard. 



In Minnesota we have a number of such tortoise beetles, 

 seme very large, and also some that are found on other plants 

 than those belonging to the family of Convolvulaceae, as the net- 

 tle and sunflower. Cassida bivittata Say (Fig. 175) frequently 

 destroys the foliage of the beautiful morning-glory, and the much 

 larger Chelymorpha argus Licht. (Fig. 176) is frequently found 

 on the raspberry. 



FAMILY BRUCH1DAE. 



{Pea-weevil family). 



These well known beetles, so destructive to many kinds of 

 stored seeds of leguminous plants, as peas and beans, are not 



