168 



He also gives it as his opinion that while this is undoubtedly the 

 species which injures the potato, it is another very similar species, 

 Psy diodes punctulata, that attacks the cucumber leaves. 



This species is especially common and injurious to potatoes in 

 Southern Illinois. 



Spec. char. Imago. — It is oval, convex, black and opaque or destitute 

 of any glossiness ; clothed with thin, short, whitish pubescence ; 

 head black ; eyes prominent ; antennae of a clay-yellow color, clavate 

 and ten-jointed, the two basal joints elongated, the third joint a lit- 

 tle shorter, the tips tinged with dusky. The body is covered with 

 fine punctures, and the thorax shows a transverse groove near the 

 base. The wing covers have eight rows of coarse punctures placed in 

 slightly impressed furrows, with a shorter similarly punctured fur- 

 row on each side of the scutel. The legs are clay-yellow, with the 

 thighs, at least the hind pair, blackish-brown and very thick ; the 

 shanks are rather short, the internal angle forming a curved lobe at 

 the apex, which is cut off obliquely; the hind pair of feet are long 

 and inserted on the inside of the shank, with the basal joint as long 

 as all the others united. 



Haltica (Psylliodes) punctulata — Melsh. (The Functulated Flea- 

 beetle.) 



This is evidently very closely allied to the preceding, although 

 placed in a different genus by Dr. Fitch, in w T hich he is followed by 

 Crotch in his Check List, ft is similar in size and form to the pre- 

 cedingj of a brassy-black color, and minutely punctured, with its 

 shanks or tibiae, feet and basal joints of the antennae pale-yellowish. 

 The thorax is usually very finely punctured, though these are some- 

 times not apparent. 



Dr. Fitch says this is the species usually found on the cucumber 

 vines in New York, though quite common on other garden vegetables, 

 eating holes into the pulp of the leaves, but not penetrating through. 



Haltica (Orchestris) vittata — Fabr. (The Striped Flea-beetle.) 



This is the most troublesome species of the group now under con- 

 sideration ; found in the garden during the greater part of the season, 

 attacking the various species of cruciforous plants, such as the cab- 

 bage, radish, mustard, turnip, etc., eating into and perforating the leaves, 

 thereby doing great injury, especially to young plants; it also riddles 

 the leaves of young radishes in the spring. Even flowering plants 

 do not all escape, as the Ten Weeks Stock, Virginia Stock, and, some 

 others, also, suffer from the attacks of this lilliputian foe, which is 

 scarcely one-tenth of an inch long, and about half as broad. 



They are of a shining black color, oval in form, broadest at the 

 shoulders; the hind thighs as in the other species of Halt ica enlarged, 

 by which they are enabled to make strong leaps. The surface is 

 marked with very minute shallow punctures ; on the middle of each 

 wing-case is a comparatively broad, irregular, yellowish stripe, ex- 

 tending from the shoulder nearly to the tip. 



Dr. Fitch, without actually tracing this species through its trans- 



