113 



striped and in:ir<;iii('(| hiislcr-bccllcs arc abroad from .Iiiiu! to October, 

 and are especially abiimlaiit late in July and in Aujii;)ist. The striped 

 species is the earliest of the three to aj)i)ear. The black blister-beetle 

 comes out about a month behind t\\c. otlu^rs, being most abundant in 



Kifi. 97, Tlie Stri|)C(l lilifiter-heetle, I'J/yicaula vittala: n , atlult; 6, eggs; c, first larval stage 

 (triiinf?ulin); d, seooiid (caraboul) stage; e, same as /, as doubled up in pod; /, third (scarabaeoid) 

 stage; i/. coarctate larval stage. All but e, enlarged. (Chittenden, U. S. Dei)t. of Agriculture.) 



August and September. The black and striped species are apparenth' 

 single-brooded witli us, but the margined blister-bon^tle is said to be 

 double-brooded in this latitude. 



Injuries to corn })y these insects are not likely to call for treatment. 

 In tlie garden they are readily poisoned by arsenical insecticides. The 

 usefulness of their larvae as powerful checks upon the increase of grass- 

 h()|)pers is such as to make their destruction a measure of doubtfyil 

 value, even though the adults may be locally injurious. 



THI-: IMBRICATED SNOUT-BE ITLh:. 

 Epiccerus imhricatus Say. 



This weevil or snout-beetle (Fig. 98, a, h) is about three eighths of 

 an inch long, strongly convex in form, brownish, with grayish cross- 

 })ars on the back. It is not usually common but becomes locally abun- 

 dant, and though feeding upon a variety of food plants is sometimes 

 considerably injurious to corn, eating out notches in the edge of the 

 leaf, and even virtually devouring the young corn plant. It also does 

 more or less injury to sugar-beets, beans, peas, onion, radish, cabbage, 

 cucumber, melon, squash, jiotato, and tomato; to apple, cherry, and 

 pear; and to raspberry, blackberry, gooseberry, and strawberry, besides 

 feeding on a number of kinds of common weeds. 



The species is generally distributed in the United States east of the 

 Rocky Mountains except to the extreme north, and is especially abun- 

 dant west of the Mississippi. It is single-brooded and hibernates as an 

 adult, emerging in early spring, and becoming most injurious in May. 



