26 



THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



other very cotuinoii liirva which has the same ec- 

 centric habits, and which may be found in great 

 numbers on the Sumac (Rhus f^labra) in Illinois, 

 and probably in other States also south of New 

 Eugland. This last changes to an oval jumping 

 Leaf-beetle, (^Blcpharida rhm's,) about i inch long 

 and of a yellow color speckled with brick-red, so as 

 strongly to resemble a variety of field-bean com- 

 monly grown among corn in the Western States. 



There are two broods of this insect every year. 

 The first brood of larvae may be found on the Po- 

 tato vines towards the latter end of June, and the 

 second brood in August. They always retire un- 

 der ground to assume the pupa state, the first brood 

 staying there about a fortnight before they emerge 

 in the perfect beetle state, and the second brood 

 staying there all winter, and only emerging at the 

 beginning of the following June. They then of 

 course, as usual, pair and lay their eggs on the 

 leaves of the potato, which eggs are said to be ob- 

 long-oval, of a golden yellow color, and to be glued 

 to the leaves in parcels of six or eight together. 

 The same process is repeated when the second 

 brood of beetles emerges from the ground. Through- 

 out the Eastern States, as may be readily seen from 

 various answers to correspondents in the Pii.iCTl- 

 CAL Entomologist, this insect is quite common, 

 and sometimes rather troublesome ; but nowhere 

 has it ever devastated the potato-vines, as ruinous- 

 ly as the Colorado beetle does, wherever it is once 

 fairly established. Miss Plucke, however, of New 

 York, says that "it destroyed her potato-vines for 

 two years back, and threatened to do the same in 

 1SG6." (Practical Entomologist I, p. 113.) 

 Throughout the Western States, so far as my ex- 

 perience goes, it is quite a rare insect, though at 

 one point in Ohio it appears to be somewhat com- 

 moner, according to Mr. Benner. (See Practical 

 E.ntomologist I, p. 114.) 



The above insect, as will have been noticed, 

 agrees with the Colorado Potato Bug in the larva, 

 as well as the perfect insect, feeding on the leaves 

 of the plant which it inhabits, and also in there be- 

 ing more than one brood of them every year. The 

 three following differ from both the above insects 

 in these two respects; for in these three it is only 

 the perfect beetle that cats the leaves, the larva feed- 

 ing underground upon roots of different kinds; and 

 moreover there is but one brood of them every 

 year. All three of tlie.se are true Blister-beetles, 

 belonging to the same genus as the common Span- 

 ish Fly of the shops, and will raise just as good a 

 blister as that does. Hence, wherever they occur 

 in excessive numbers, they might be made to pay 

 for the damage that they do by killing them in hot 

 water, spreading them out to dry for a week or so, 

 and then selling them to the apothecaries, with 

 whom they would command now from $1.85 to SI -90 

 a pound. In this case, however, care should be taken 

 not to inhale the fumes arising from their bodies, 

 which fumes are of a very strong and almost poi- 

 sonous nature. 



The Striped Blistkr-beetlk (Li/lta vi't.tafn), 

 of whicl> a slightly magnified figure is annexed, oc- 



curs more abundantly in .southern latitudes, but is 

 occasionally seen in North Illinois and- 

 in New England. In South Illinois 

 I found it quite abundant in a Po- 

 tato field, but not so as to completely 

 strip the leaves and even to devour 

 all the smaller stems, as the Colorado 

 beetle usually does, if not interfered 

 with. In some specimens, the broad 

 outer black stripe on the wing-cases Colur3--yellow 



,..,,, "^ o and black. 



IS divided lengthways by a slender 



yellow line, so that instead of two there are three 

 black stripes on each wing-case ; and in the same 

 field all the intermediate grades between the two 

 varieties may be met with, thus proving that the 

 four-striped individuals are not distinct species, as 

 was supposed by Fabricius, but only varieties. 



The Ash-gray Blister-beetle {Lytla cine- 

 rea) is the common species met with in the North- 

 ern States, and scarcely differs at first sight from 

 the above, except in being rather smaller and of a 

 uniform ash-gray color. It attacks not only potato- 

 vines, but also honey- locusts, and especially the 

 English or Windsor bean. This bean I tried in 

 vain for several successive years to raise in my gar- 

 den, but was regularly foiled and beaten out by the 

 ash-gray gentlemen, though I kept a girl at work 

 picking them off the vines, till her fingers were 

 completely sore and blistered up with crushing 

 them. In one particular year, in conjunction with 

 about equal numbers of the common rose-bug, (j)/a- 

 cro(hicti/lus suhspinosus,') they invaded my apple- 

 trees in great swarms, not only eating the foliage 

 but gnawing into the young apples. But I have 

 never known them do this before or since. 



The Black Blister-beetle {Lytta atrata) is 

 about the same size and shape as the above, but 

 appears later in the season, (late in August instead 

 of late in June), and is by no means so generally 

 noxious. Harris reports having found it himself 

 on potato-vines; and I have heard of it in Iowa 

 from a correspondent, as very abundant on that 

 plant; and Mr. Hill found it in 1866 "in countless 

 numbers" on the potato in the State of Ohio, in 

 company with the Striped Blister-beetle; (see P. E. 

 I, p. 107 ;) but about the only plant on which I have 

 myself noticed it is the Golden-rod (Solidago), on 

 the flowers of which it appears in considerable 

 numbers regularly every September. 



The Margined Blister-beetle {Lytta mar- 

 ginata) only differs from the Black species in the 

 wing-cases having an elegant, narrow, ash-gray 

 edging all around Mr. Barber, of Wisconsin, 

 found this species on his potato-vines, but not in 

 very large numbers; (See Pr.\ctical Entomolo- 

 gist I, p. 113;) but it more usually feeds on cer- 

 tain wild plants. 



Almost the only known remedy for all the above 

 insects, when they occur in injurious numbers on 

 potatoes, is hand-picking or brushing them off the 

 vines into shallow pans. As I have already once 

 suggested, a pan with a lid to it like that of a com- 

 mon spittoon, would, I think, be found very conve- 

 nient ibr this purpose - as the insects might then 



