122 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



chusetts, is of a more slender form than the preceding, and 

 measures only from five and a half to slx tenths of an inch in 

 length. Its antennae and feet are black, and all the rest of its 

 body is ashen gray, being thickly covered with a very short 

 down of that color. Hence it is called Cantharis cinerea* or 

 the ash-colored Cantharis. When the insect is rubbed, the 

 ash-colored substance comes off, leaving the surface black. It 

 begins to appear in gardens about the twentieth of June, and 

 is very fond of the leaves of the English bean, which it some- 

 times entirely destroys. It is also occasionally found in con- 

 siderable numbers on potato-vines ; and in Cambridge, Massa- 

 chusetts, it has repeatedly appeared in great profusion upon 

 hedges of the honey-locust, which have been entirely stripped 

 of foliage by these voracious insects. They are also found on 

 the wild indigo-weed. In the night, and in rainy weather, 

 they descend from the plants, and burrow in the ground, or 

 under leaves and tufts of grass. Thither also they retire for 

 shelter during the heat of the day, being most actively engaged 

 in eating in the morning and evening. About the fust of 

 August they go into the ground and lay their eggs, and these 

 are hatched in the course of one month. The larvae are slen- 

 der, somewhat flattened grubs, of a yellowish color, banded 

 with black, with a small reddish head, and six legs. These 

 grubs are very active in their motions, and appear to live upon 

 fine roots in the ground; but I have not been able to keep 

 them till they arrived at maturity, and therefore know nothing 

 further of their history. 



About the middle of August, and during the rest of this 

 and the following month, a jet-black Cantharis may be seen 

 on potato-vines, and also on the blossoms and leaves of various 

 kinds of golden-rod, particularly the tall golden-rod ( Solidago 

 altissima), which seems to be its favorite food. In some places 

 it is as plentiful in potato-fields as the striped and the mar- 

 gined Cantharis, and by its serious ravages has often excited 

 attention. These three kinds, in fact, are often confounded 

 under the common name of potato-flies ; and it is still more 



* Lytta cinerea, Fabricius. 



