New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 239 
The insect enemies® of these crops are numerous and destructive, 
and growers have been seriously embarrassed by them. Of these 
pests the striped cucumber beetle is one of the best known and is 
much dreaded because of its destructiveness. In Long Island, where 
cucumbers are planted on a large scale for pickles, the ravages of 
this insect cause heavy losses every year and the insect is generally 
regarded as a serious handicap to successful pickle growing. In 
1897 and 1808, extensive observations* were made on the life history 
of the beetle and some exhaustive tests were undertaken to deter- 
mine the value of the remedies that were commonly employed, and, 
if possible, to develop more efficient methods of control. 
It was found that the young striped beetles feed during late sum- 
mer and fall upon the fruits of the cucurbits, especially damaging 
musk melons; upon late planted beans, eating both vines and young 
pods; and upon the flowers of golden rod and aster. They do not 
mate during the fall, as shown by careful dissections. Most of them 
pass the winter in little cells which they have burrowed out in the 
soil below the frost line, while some possibly hide in sheltered posi- 
tions, where they feel the heat of the spring quicker and make their 
appearance early in mid-spring. The beetles do not appear in in- 
jurious numbers until late in May or early in June. 
The beetles feed voraciously for five or ten days before com- 
mencing to pair. As they show so little discrimination at this period 
in their eating, it was found that they are more readily poisoned 
now than later, when they become more fastidious in their tastes. 
At all times they show a preference for squash, which habit fur- 
nished a suggestion for the better protection of cucumbers and 
melons. 
It was also noticed that egg laying begins about July 20 and lasts 
one month. The eggs are deposited with little care about the hairs 
of the leaves, at the growing tips of the vines and on the ground 
under the leaves or runners. The eggs are light yellow in color, 
oval in shape, and are but little larger than a pin point. 
It was found that the larvae live in the moist earth and in the 
stems, feeding upon the tissues of the latter, and upon the vines and 
fruits when they rest in the soil. These larvae require about a 
month to feed and to develop. They then form little cells below the 
surface of the ground and emerge as adults in from one to two 
* Bul. 75; same in Rpt. 13:713-728 (1804). 
“Bul. 158; same in Rpt. 18:251-288 (1899). 
