166 



LEAF-BEETLES. 



ers. The "Wavy-striped flea-beetle," {P/iyllotrcla vittata Fab.), 

 is illustrated in Fig. 170. It is a minute, shiny black insect, with 

 a distinct yellow stripe through the middle of each elytron. The 

 larvae make mines into the tissues of the plants mentioned above. 

 As a remedy it is important to keep down all cruciferous weeds, 

 in other words to give the land a clean' culture, and to remove the 

 remnants of the crop as soon as possible and to destroy them. 

 The adult becomes even more injurious by eating little pits into 

 the thicker leaves, and minute holes into the thinner-leaved plants 

 they infest ; in such cases the use of arsenites or of kerosene-emul- 

 sion is of great benefit. 



According to Prof. Saunders this beetle is also sometimes 

 found to eat the leaves of strawberry plants. 



Fig. 170V^. — Psylliodes species. — After 

 Brehm. 



Fig. 171. — Orfotttota dorsalis, Thunb.; 

 larva and pupa. — After Hopkins. 



Numerous other flea-beetles belonging to the genus Psylliodes 

 occur in Minnesota ; one of which is shown in Fig. 170 V2. 



A small number of ver}^ curiously shaped beetles follow the 

 flea-beetles in the classification of beetles usually adopted. They 

 are wedge-shaped beetles, or Hispidae, in which the antennae are 

 thickened, and the elytra broadened at the tip, where they ter- 

 minate rather abruptly. In most of these brightly colored beetles 

 the body is much roughened by deep furrows and pits. These 

 and the tortoise beetles, which follow next, also differ from other 

 leaf-feeding beetles in having the fore part of the head promi- 

 nent, so that tlie mouth-organs are situated on the underside. 



