220 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETABLES 



the preceding is commonest southward. Where occurring nor- 

 mally it is often found in about the same abundance on potato, 

 eggplant, tomato, horse-nettle, night-shade and Jamestown weed. 

 The plants mentioned are sometimes damaged and its work is 

 evident on these crops from Maryland and Virginia southward. 

 The beetle is scarcely more than one-twentieth of an inch 

 long, pale brown in color, the elytra being normally marked 



near the middle with a 

 dark, transverse band of 

 greater or less extent 

 (fig. 140, a). The larva 

 (b) is delicate, thread- 

 like and white, except 

 the head, which is yel- 

 low. The beetle riddles 

 leaves in the same man- 

 ner as do other flea- 

 beetles, and in its attack 

 on tobacco frequently 

 renders plants unfit for 



Fig. 140.— Tobacco flja-beetle, a, Beetle; t, larva; use. It is doubtleSS a 

 c, head of larva; d, posterier leg; e, anal segment; . . . 



/, pupa, a, b, f. Enlarged about fifteen times; transmitter of Certam 



c, a, e, more enlarged. (Author's illustration, U. S. diseases which forni a- 

 Dept. Agr.) 



bout the punctures made 

 by the beetle in obtaining its food supply. From experiments 

 by the writer it has been learned that the full life cycle may be 

 passed, in extremely hot weather, in 28 days. The egg period 

 in such weather is about six days, the pupa is the same, which 

 affords, by deduction, a larval period of 16 days. 



Remedies are discussed on page 65, on the flea-beetles. 



The Black Blister Beetle (Epicauta pennsylvanica DeG.). — 

 The farmer is quite too well acquainted with this and other 

 blister beetles as unwelcome visitors to his potato patch, and 

 florists know it as the "aster bug," from the severe injuries 



