306* MANUAL OF VEGETABLE-GARDEN INSECTS 



The Gray Blister-Beetle 



Epicauta cinerea Forster 



The gray blister-beetle (Fig. 186) closely resembles the ash- 

 gray species with which it has often been confused. It is 

 distinguished by having the second segment of the antennae 



less than one half as long as the 

 third. The ash-gray blister-beetle 

 is a duller, darker gray; the gray 

 blister-beetle is a lighter gray with a 

 slight tinge of yellow. This latter 

 beetle has also been confused with 

 the margined species, some writers 

 even considering the two as merely 

 I ' lij/hff 11 varieties of the same species. While 



/ M||f \ the gray blister-beetle is recorded as 



V x^^-^tmw } occurring sparingly in the East, it 



is much more abundant in the West 

 in Iowa, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska 

 and Texas. It attacks bean, lentil, 

 lupine, potato and clover and in western Nebraska has been 

 recorded as feeding on the hornbean, locust and honey locust. 

 It has been reared from the egg-pods of the Rocky Mountain 

 locust. The egg is pale clay-yellow in color, elongate elliptical 

 in outline, and about tV inch in length. 



Fig. ISO. — The gray 

 beetle (X 3^). 



)lister- 



The Asii-Gray Blister-Beetle 



Macrohasis unicolor Kirby 



The species known as the ash-gray blister-beetle (Fig. 187) is 

 i to f inch in length. The ground color is black but the insect 

 is clothed with a grayish pubescence so that its general ap- 



The insect is distributed throughout 



pearance is dark gray. 



