150 



COLEOPTERA. 



neath are a beautiful rose color. The eggs (Fig. 91, <:?) 

 are laid on the lower side of the leaves of the potato 

 plant. The larva (Fig. 91, b, b) is a short, thick-set 

 grub, with a dark-brown head, and a prothorax some- 

 what stiffened by chitine. The remaining thoracic and 

 abdominal rings are fleshy. This larva burrows into 

 the ground and there changes to the pupa {c). In less 





than a month from the time the eggs are hatched the 

 beetle has passed through its indirect metamorphosis. 

 Two or three broods are produced in a season, and 

 the last brood remains underground during the winter. 

 The home of this beetle was originally among the 

 Rocky Mountains, where it fed upon a wild species of 

 potato. Afterward it acquired a taste for the culti- 



