502 



COLEOPTERA. 



Fig. 493. 



The genus Donacia connects this famil}- with the preceding. 

 It has a rather long body and unusually long antennae, D. 

 proxima Kirby is dark blue, and Donacia Kirhyi Lacordaire 

 is of a shining copper}^ hue. The larvae live in the stems of 

 water plants, and make a leathery cocoon in the earth before 

 transforming. 



The Grape-vine Fidia (F. viticida Walsh, Fig. 493) is very 

 injurious to the grape in the Western States, from its habit of 

 "cutting straight elongated holes of about an eighth of aii 

 inch in diameter in the leaves, and when numer- 

 ous so riddling the leaves as to reduce them to 

 mere shreds." It is chestnut brown, and cov- 

 ered with short whitish hairs, g■i^1ng it a hoary 

 appearance. Riley states that it is very abun- 

 dant in the vineyards in Missouri, where it pre- 

 fers Concord and Norton's Virginia grapes, 

 while it occurs on the wild grape-vine and on tlie leaves of 

 the Cercis Canadensis. "It makes its appearance during tht 

 montli of June, and by the end of Jul}^ has generall}^ disap- 

 peared, from which fact we may infer that there is but one 

 brood each year." The vines should be often shaken and 

 chickens turned in to feed upon them when it is possible. 



Crioceris is 

 known b^^ its 

 rathe]" long 

 Ijod}', and the 

 prothorax be- 

 ing narrower 

 tlian the ely- 

 tra. The an- 

 tennjB are 

 Fig. 494. rather long, 



the fore coxEe are swollen, pressed together, and the claws 

 are either free or united at the base. We have no native 

 species, but Crioceris asparagi Linn, has been introduced 

 into gardens about New York, doing much injury to the 

 asparagus. Fitcli describes it as being about a quarter of an 

 inch long, with a tawny red prothorax and three bright lemon 

 3 ellow spots on eacli elytron. The larva is soft-bodied, twice 



