127 



evening than in the heat of the day, this is the proper time to gather 

 them, as it can be done most effectually. Driving them during the 

 heat of the day into windrows of hay or straw and then setting fire 

 to these has been recommended and tried in some instances with suc- 

 cess. Prof. Riley says the Peach Blow potato is less liable to attack 

 than the other varieties, and recommends planting it. As these in- 

 sects appear rather late in the season, the early varieties of the potato 

 will be more likely to escape their attacks. 



Section III. TETRAMERA. 



Apparently four joints in all the feet; the joints dilated and brush- 

 like on the underside, with the next to the last joint usually two- 

 lobed. This section contains a very large number of injurious spe- 

 cies ; in fact, more than belong to all the other sections combined. To 

 this section belong the snout-beetles or weevils, the long-horned wood- 

 borers, the short-horned wood-borers, the chrysomelians or plant - 

 beetles, the flea-beetles, tortoise-beetles, etc. 



Family BRUCHID.E. (Pea and Bean Weevils.) 



This family contains but few species, all small, none of them reach- 

 ing a quarter of an inch in length. They have the front part of the 

 head but slightly prolonged in front, and are thus easily distinguished 

 frovi the curculios, which are the true snout-beetles. They differ 

 from the chrysomelians in the short serrate antennae, and in having 

 the tip of the abdomen exposed. The body is somewhat oval or egg- 

 shaped, each wing case being rounded at the tip; the hind legs are 

 usually longer than the others and the thighs much swolen ; the 

 head is bent abruptly downward, and the antennae are 11-jointed. 



The larvae are short, thick, curved or arched, footless grubs with 

 small heads. Their depredations are confined, so far as known, to 

 pod-b3aring plants, one usually occupying the interior of a pea or 

 seed, where it lives and undergoes its transformations. 



Bruchus (Mylabris) pisi. — Linn. (The Pea-weevil.) 



[Figl5] ^ This little beetle, which is usually 



known as the pea-bug, is about one-eighth 

 of an inch long, of a rusty-black color, 

 with spots and partial bands of gray; the 

 tip of the abdomen white, with two very 

 distinct black spots; a very indistinct 

 whitish band a little in front of the mid- 

 dle of each wing-case, and a very distinct 

 oblique white band on each behind the 

 middle. 

 biutchi-s pisr, Linn.:-o, beetle en- About the month of June, or as soon as 



larged, the small outline showing (.} ie voun o- peas in the pod begin to form 

 natural size : b, a pea from which "*"- J fc> I; 1 r o 



the beetle has escaped. and swell, the female deposits her eggs on 



