322 MANUAL OF VEGETABLE-GARDEN INSECTS 



The insect ranges from New Enojland through Canada to 

 CaHfornia and southward to Georgia, Alabama and Mexico. 

 It has })een found most destructive to young beets and recently 

 transplanted tomato plants. It also attacks potato, carrot, 

 parsnip, cantaloupe, cucumber, pumpkin, cabbage, turnip, 

 radish, pea, bean, eggplant, lettuce, summer savory, sweet 

 potato, peanut, corn and cotton. It feeds on a large number 

 of wild plants, among which are pigweed, lamb's quarters, 

 purslane, ragweed, cocklebur, horse sorrel and wild solana- 

 ceous plants. It also sometimes injures newly set aster plants 

 and apple and pear nursery stock. 



It is not definitely known where or in what stage the insect 

 passes the winter. The beetles appear on the plants in the 

 spring. In feeding they eat out small holes in the epidermis 

 and parenchyma but do not eat through the leaf. Young 

 beet plants are often killed in this way, it sometimes being 

 necessary to replant. The egg is about to inch in length, 

 elliptical in outline, and yellowish in color. The eggs have 

 not been observed except under cage conditions. Larvae have 

 been found on the roots of lamb's quarters and probably occur 

 on several other common weeds. A single larva was once 

 found on a sprouting corn plant. This may have been acci- 

 dental. The full-grown larva is elongate, about i inch in length, 

 white, with a yellowish head. The body is broadest posteriorly. 

 At Washington the eggs are laid during June and July and the 

 adults of the new brood begin to emerge in late July. The 

 number of generations annually has not been definitely de- 

 termined but there is probably only one, at least in the North. 

 The insect j)robably hibernates as a larva, i>upates in the 

 spring and transforms to the adult in May or June. 



References 



U. R. Div. Ent. Bull. 23, pp. 22-29. 1900. 



111. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. GO, pp. 4G8-470. 1900. 



