The Tobacco Slug. 



33 



overwintered female will be smaller, owiDg to the extended egg-laying 

 period, it being possible for a female to be still laying long after 

 her first progeny have become parents. In cooler climates, too, the 

 number of generations will be less. In Durban the time from the 

 laying of an egg till the resulting beetle that egg develops lays its 

 first eggs has been found to vary from twenty-eight days in summer 

 to thirty-six days in September. 



Fig. 1.— The Tobacco Slug. a. b. Injured tobacco leaves, c. The beetle enlarged; 



a. the same, natural size. e. The cocoon, enlarged. /./. Beetles escaping from cocoons. 



(J. An assassin bug, an enemy of the pest. 



During the last winter some beetles in a jar near a window on 

 the north side, where they were warmed up during the day, con- 

 tinued egg-laying up to the 22nd of June, and started again on the 



9. 



