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. II. Shimer has given an account of tlie 

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

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

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

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

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

 when tlie 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 

 probabl}' lives several days 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, Avhite, cylindrical grub, Avith 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, Avith a small prop-leg beneath. Above is 

 an orl)icular brown space, growing black posterioi'ly 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 Avhich the beetle is closely allied. The pupa is .17 of an 

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

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

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

 is injurious to the loaves of the Dahlia. 



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

 belong, is well knoAvn. The larvte mine the leaves of the 

 ])lants on Avhich they afterAvards feed. Haltica (Crepidodera) 

 cucumeris Harris (Fig. 502) infests the cucumber. Harris de- 

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

 black color, Avith clay-yelloAv antennoe and legs, except the 

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



