92 



MARYLAXD AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



clematis vines, by these insects, is often quite serious, and there is no 

 perfectly satisfactory way of protecting these plants under such cir- 

 cumstances, other than by covering them with gauze or netting. 



The following is a condensed account of the very peculiar life-history 

 of the Striped Blister-beetle which may be taken as a type of the life-his- 

 tories of the other blister-beetles here mentioned. Those who are inter- 

 ested in the subject will find full details in a paper in the Transactions 



/KSv^ t)f the Academy of Sciences 

 of St. Louis, volume III., and 

 in the First Keport of the U. 

 S. Entomological Commission^ 

 pages 293-301. 



From July to the middle of 

 October the female lays her 

 eggs in the ground in loose, 

 irregular masses of about 130, 

 on the average. Each female 

 lays from 400 to 500 eggs, 

 choosing locations which are 

 apt to be used for the same 

 ])ur])ose by locusts. In about 

 ten days the eggs hatch and 

 the first larva, known as the 

 triungulin, emerges (Fig. 

 w^'^' ^,?%-^>''.T'^:i i'ittnta:n, egfj-pod of Caioptcnus 22, r.) This little larva is at 



differentialis with the mouth torn open, exposing ^ \ n ■, a i /• .1 



the newly hatched larva of Epicauta eatins into an tirst leeble and perfectly 

 egg; 2), ejirg: c. first larva, or triunKuliii (greatly en- ,i-liifo V.nf onr^i fnvnj V>rnwr> 

 largecli:fl, caraboltl stage ot second larva; dorsal ^^ ^"^e, hUt SOOll tUlUfe Drown 



view (greatly enlarged). and bccomes veiT activc Avhcn 



warmed by the sun, running about over the surface of the ground and 

 searching for egg pods. When one of these is found, the triungulin 

 bores through the neck of the pod and begins to eat it aAvay (Fig. 22. 

 a.) After absorbing the substance of one or two eggs, this triungulin 

 moults and produces the second larva, known as the caraba^oid stage (Fig. 

 22, d). In this stage it lies in a curved position within the pod, as 

 shown at e. During the growth of the larva, which is ra])id, several 

 other moults take place, the second one producing the scaral)ax)id stage 

 (Fig. 23, a) in which the larva looks very much like an ordinary Avhite 



grub. A third moult results in lit- 

 tle change structurally, but the 

 larva attains full size, and gener- 

 ally leaves the egg pod which it 

 has by this time gutted. After 

 the fourth moult, a still greater 

 change takes place and the larva 

 becomes shrunken, rigid and hard- 

 ened 



Fig. iS.^Epicauta vittata: a, full grown 

 stage of second larva: b, portion of the dorsal 

 skin of same: c, pseudo-puim. or coarctate 

 larva, lateral view; d, same, dorsal view. 



with the legs and mouth- 

 parts reduced to mere tubercles. 

 This is known as the coarctate lar_ 



