BLISTER-BEETLES 



303 



it has been since the invasion of the Colorado potato beetle. 

 It is generally distributed from New England, Quebec and 

 Ontario to Montana and southward to Texas and Florida but 

 is most abundant in the central and southern states. The 

 beetle (Fig. 184) is ^ to f inch in length. In the typical form, 

 the head, prothorax and wing-covers ate dull yellow or reddish 

 yellow. On the head there are tw^o black spots ; on the pro- 

 thorax two black stripes, and on each wing-cover two broad 

 black stripes. In the variety known as lemniscata there are 

 three black stripes on each wing- 

 cover. In Illinois the beetles are to 

 be found from the first of June to the 

 first of September and are most abun- 

 dant during the last half of July and 

 the first part of August. They feed 

 ravenously on the foliage and blossoms 

 of their food plants but have a tend- 

 ency to be scattered more uniformly 

 through the fields than is the more 

 usual habit among blister-beetles. 

 They attack potato, tomato, beet, 

 eggplant, carrot, cabbage, turnip, 

 radish, bean, pea, melon, corn, buck- 

 wheat, clover, and in Oklahoma have been found very destruc- 

 tive to ripening tomatoes. They also feed on cotton, clematis, 

 arrow-leaf and pigweed. 



In Missouri egg-laying begins in July and may continue 

 until October. The female deposits her eggs in clusters of 

 about 130 in small excavations in the ground which she hollows 

 out and then covers them with earth. The same beetle may 

 lay several batches of eggs in the course of her life. The egg 

 is about T2 inch in length, smooth and shining, elongate, cylin- 

 drical, rounded at the ends and of a pale yellowish color. The 

 eggs hatch in ten to twenty-two days. The newly hatched 



Fig. 184. — The striped 

 blister-beetle (X If). 



