ATTACKING THE LEAVES. 279 



of a light-brown color, sometimes dark, and occasionally paler 

 and yellowish. The head is black, and there are six or eight 

 shining black dots on each of the other segments of the body, 

 each dot emitting a single brownish hair. The under surface 

 is paler than the upper, its feet, six in number, are black, and 

 there is a fleshy, orange-colored proleg on the terminal seg- 

 ment. It is shown magnified in Fig. 288. 



When mature, the larvse leave the vines and descend to the 

 ground, where they burrow under the earth and form small, 

 smooth, oval cells, within which they change to 

 dark-yellowish pupae. After remaining two or" 

 three weeks in this condition, the beetles issue 

 from them, and the work of destruction goes on ; • 

 but since they live at this season of the year alto- 

 gether on leaves, of which there is an abundance, ^ 

 the injury done is much less than in the spring. 



The beetle is about three-twentieths of an inch 

 long, and varies in color from a polished steel-blue 

 to green, and occasionally to a purplish hue, with 

 a transverse depression across the hinder part of the thorax. 

 The under side is dark green, the antennae and feet brownish 

 black ; the thighs are stout and robust, by means of which 

 the insect is able to jump about very nimbly. One of the 

 legs, detached from the body, is shown in Fig. 286. On the 

 approach of winter the beetles retire to some suitable shelter, 

 as under leaves, pieces of bark, or in the earth immediately 

 around the roots of the vines, where they remain inactive 

 until the following spring. Besides the vine, they feed on the 

 Virginia creeper, Ampelopsis quinquefolia, and the alder, Alnus 

 serrulata, and sometimes eat the leaves of the plum-tree. 



Remedies. — To destroy the beetles it is recommended to 

 strew in the autumn air-slaked lime or unleached ashes 

 around the infested vines, removing and destroying all rub- 

 bish which might afford shelter. In the spring the canes and 

 young foliage may be syringed with water in which has been 

 stirred a teaspoonful of Paris-green to each gallon. Stronw 



