506 COLEOPTERA. 



from a small sieve while the leaves are wet with dew or rain ; 

 to be applied as soon as the plants are up. He objects to the 

 use of air-slacked stove lime, as it is apt to be too caustic and 

 injure the plant. Dr. H, Shimer has given an account of the 

 habits of this insect in the "Prairie Farmer," and has sent me 

 specimens of the insect in its different stages. He states that 

 the grub in June and July "eats the bark and often perforates 

 and hollows out the lower part of the stem which is beneath the 

 ground, and the upper portion of the root, and occasionally 

 when the supply below fails, we find them in the vine just 

 above the ground," It hibernates in the pupa state. " The 

 larva arrives at maturity in about a month after the egg is laid ; 

 it remains in the pupa state about two weeks, and the beetle 

 probably lives several davs before depositing her eggs, 

 so that one generation is in existence about two months, 

 and we can only have two, never more than three 

 broods in one season." He has found them boring in 

 the squash and muskmelon vines as late as October 1st. 

 The larva is a long, slender, w^hite, cylindrical grub, with a small 

 brownish head. The prothorax is a little corneous. The tho- 

 racic legs are very slender, pale brown ; the end of the body is 

 suddenly truncated, with a small prop-leg beneath. Above is 

 an orbicular brown space, growing black posteriorly and ending 

 in a pair of upcurved, vertical, slender black spines. It is .40 

 of an inch long. It will be seen that both in its boring habits 

 and its corresponding, remarkable, elongated, cylindrical, soft 

 white body, that this larva varies widely from that of Galleruca. 

 to which the beetle is closely allied. The plipa is .17 of an 

 inch long, white, with the tip of the abdomen ending in two 

 long acute spines arising from a common base. The TavcIvc- 

 spotted Diabrothica (Fig, 501, D, duodecim-punctata Fabr,) 

 is injurious to the leaves of the Dahlia. 



The genus Halfica, to which the little blackish Flea-beetles 

 belong, is well known. The larvae mine the leaves of the 

 plants on which they afterwards feed. HaJtica (Crepidodera) 

 ciicumeris Harris (Fig. 502) infests the cucumber, Harris de- 

 scribes it as being "only one-sixteenth of an inch long, of a 

 black color, with claj^-yellow antennas and legs, except the 

 hindmost thighs, which are brown. The upper side of the body 



