114 MANUAL OF VEGETABLE-GARDEN INSECTS 



cucurbits, it may be controlled by the measures suggested for 

 the striped cucumber beetle. 



The Western Twelve-Spotted Cucumber Beetle 



Diahrotica soror Leconte 



On the Pacific Coast the southern corn root-worm (page 222) 

 is replaced by a closely related species which may be distin- 

 guished by having the entire underside of the body and the legs 



black ; the antennae are only 

 slightly paler at the base. The 

 two posterior spots on the wing- 

 covers have a tendency to 

 coalesce (Fig. 70). 



The beetles attack cantaloupe, 

 watermelon, squash and cucum- 

 ber plants just as they are com- 

 ing up and also eat holes in the 

 fruit. They are also destructive 

 to beet, spinach, bean, pea, cab- 

 bage, turnip, potato, lettuce, 

 mustard, peanut, corn, alfalfa 

 and clover. They are especially troublesome on farms on 

 which flowers are grown for seed. They sometimes defoliate 

 young deciduous and citrus trees and cause considerable injury 

 by eating holes in the fruit of the peach, prune and apricot. 

 The beetles hibernate in sheltered places, emerging in early 

 spring. x\fter feeding for about eighteen to twenty-four days, 

 the small, dirty white, oval eggs are deposited singly or in 

 clusters of four or five to fifty in the ground near the base of 

 the food plant, about one quarter to one half inch from* the 

 surface. The eggs are deposited over a period of about three 

 weeks. They hatch in nine to twenty-six days with an aver- 

 age of about two weeks. The larvae have been found feedins: 



Fig. 70. — The western twelve- 

 spotted cucumber beetle (X 5). 



