132 FORTT-THIRD REPORT ON TEE StATE MvSEUM. [36] 



Epicauta vittata (Fabr.). 

 The Striped Blister-Beetle. 

 (Ord. Coleopteka: Fam. Meloid^.) 

 Ltjtta vittata Fabricius : Systema Entomologise, 1775, p. 260, No. 3. 



The following communication under date of July sixteenth was 

 received from a correspondent in Prospectville, Pa. : 



Providentially, no ' doubt, aided considerably by incessant hard 

 work in sprinkling with Paris-green and plaster of Paris, we have at 

 last got rid of the Colorado-beetle (for this season at least) without 

 much damage to our potato vines. In their place some old acquaint- 

 ances have put in their appearance by millions, which were here 

 about six years ago when they destroyed the mangold beet, and 

 carrot crops. They have now taken the place of the Colorado beetles 

 on the potatoes, and are equally as ravenous as the young beetles. 

 They are easily driven off by sprinkling the vines with fine lime or 

 plaster of Paris. There is no necessity of wasting Paris green on 

 them, as they will not eat the leaves when dusted. I have driven 

 them away in former years by simply lashing the vines with a cart 

 whip or a hickory brush, driving them out of the field m regular 

 armies, but the most certain way is to promptly dust the vines. As I 

 do not know the name of this insect, I inclose one for a name and 

 description. 



The " old acquaintances " which are reappearing in immense num- 

 '^ bers after a long interval are the striped blister- 

 beetle, Epicauta vittata (Fabr.). It is a southern 

 species not very often injurious in the State of 

 New York, so far as my observations extend ; occur- 

 ring rarely in New England, according to Dr. Harris; 

 \ sometimes in Canada, as stated by Mr. Saunders; 

 fIg. 16. -The but abundantly northward and westward of the 

 striped blister- Carolinas, extending to the foot of the Eocky 

 beetle, Epi- . 



cAUTA YiTTATA .mouutains. 



Food Plants and Voracity. 

 The beetle feeds upon a number of garden vegetables, but mani- 

 fests a preference for the leaves of potatoes and tomatoes. They 

 often make their appearance very suddenly, and have been known to 

 defoliate large potato patches in two or three days. So serious often 

 are their ravages upon potato vines that before the advent of the 

 Doryphora decemlineata, it was frequently referred to as " the potato 

 beetle," and Dr. Thomas, in the Ninth Report on the Insects of Illinois, 

 cites it as the " old-fashioned potato-beetle." In the year 1880 it was 

 unusually prevalent in the State of New York. Examples were sent 

 to me from Bethlehem, Albany county, with the statement that it had 



