82 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



years have passed since then, we cannot say 

 that we have ever recognized the Garret of either 

 of them. We have also seen them feeding on 

 tomato and various species of common wild 

 plants, especially the "Golden Rod" (Solkla- 

 go and the " Wild Indigo," (Baptisia tinctoria.) 

 The history of one is the history of all 

 of them, although Figs. 1 and 4 are most 

 frequently found in Lancaster county. They 

 have been referred to different genera by dif- 

 ferent authors, (Cuntharis, Epicauta ct Lytta) 

 but the last named, of Fabhicius, has been 

 most generally adopted, and seems to have 

 priority. 



We may possibly have seen the larvm of 

 these insects, but we have never identified 

 them as such, and considermg the vast numbers 

 that sometimes occur in the potato fields of 

 Maryland and Virginia, the lanxK 

 in some of their stages of develop- 

 ment must be quite as abundant 

 smnewhere; but where, or on what 

 they feed, or of their transforma- 

 tions — except that they are under 

 //■■\\ ground, and feed on the roots of 

 ' I mi J vegetation— the published accounts 

 / A are contradictory and unsatisfac- 



/ \ tory. Some of the allied species — 



Fig. 3 ^i^j. u Qii beetles " for instance, are 

 parasitic on certain species of bees, or feed on 

 their "bread," and have a very extraordinary 

 history, transformation and progressive devel- 

 opment, and are ditiicult to observe. 



According to Latreille, the lurvce of the 

 "Spanish fly" reside underground, and feed 

 upon the roots of vegetables, and are produced 

 from a mass of agglutinated eggs deposited 

 there by the female. "They have the body 

 soft and of a yellowish white, composed of 

 thirteen segments, with two short filiform 

 antenn®, and six short scaly feet," and infer- 

 entially, our species of " blister-beetles, " or 

 "potato-beetle," — as we may choose to call 

 them — may approximate to the foreign species 

 in habits and form. 



Wherever they may pass the larval pgriod, 

 or on whatever they may feed, they usually 

 appear suddenly in the midsummer in the 

 perfect state, and remain throughout August 

 and September. However greedily they may 

 be feeding on vegetation, when disturbed they 

 all have the habit of releasing their hold, 

 drawing in the feet, and falling to the ground 

 and we have often been surprised at the dex- 

 terity with which they are capable of hiding 

 themselves. As we stated on page 34, col. 2, 

 Feb. number of The Farmer, the blistering 

 properties of these beetles are as strong, or 

 nearly as strong, in our species as they are 

 in the Spanish-fly, and this fact may suggest 

 what ought ultimately to be done with them 

 if they should greatly and destructively in- 

 crease in numbers in tliis country. They are 

 rather pretty insects, but emit an unpleasant 

 odor, and moreover, are so copious in their 

 excretions, that they mar their own beauty 

 as well as the beauty of any other insects 



time on the same potato vines, or other plants. 



Fig. 2 is the "Margined Potato-Beetle," 

 (Lytta mnrcjinata) the general color of which, 

 above, is black with the wing-covers margined 

 with ash-gray. Itisalsothesameash-gray color 

 on the under side. This species does not 

 usually occur as frequently nor as abundantly 

 as No. 1. The cut is of about the natural size, 

 but there is also a sexual and incidental dif- 

 ference in the size of this species. 



Fig. 3 is the "Ash-gray Potato-Beetle," 

 [Lytta cinerea) the whole insect being uni- 

 formly of the same ash-gray color. It is not 

 quite as large as it is represented in the cut, 

 the straight line on the right side representing 

 the true size, d represents the difference in the 

 antenna; of the sexes 3 the male and ? the 

 female. Although we have found this species 

 feeding on the potato vines, yet it does not 

 occur as abundantly as the stripted or margined 

 si)ecies, nor is it so frequently found on the 

 potato vines. 



Fig. 4 represents the "Black-i-at potato- 

 beetle " (Lytta murina), which, according to 

 Riley and Walch, is the species that feeds on 

 the potato vines, and we saw it so occupied 

 last sunmier, but must have mistaken it for 

 another species. It is entirely black, and we 

 have seen it as large, or nearly so, as the cut ; 

 but it is more frequently found the size of the 

 straight line on the right side of tlie figure. 

 We have a smaller silky-black species in Lan- 

 caster county (Lytta atrtita), which occurs on 

 the Golden Rod and other (ilants more abun- 

 dantly than any of the foregoing species, and 

 which has four raised lines on the wing-covers, 

 and has the antenna, as shown a.t c $ male, 

 9 female. This sjiecies is not only smaller 

 than any of the others, but it is also more 

 pointed at the hind end of the body, and the 

 wing-covers are also more convoluted. 



The last two insects are, however, so nearly 

 alike that, without a minute examination, 

 they are almost certain to be confounded. We 

 have called these insects potato-beetles, simply 

 because our subject has . been the enemies of 

 the potato plant, but more properly they 

 should be called Blister-heetles, which they 

 really are; and although they have been very 

 destructive in latitudes farther south, they 

 have not been so in any marked degree in 

 Lancaster county. They have been success- 

 fully destroyed by placing dry straw or hay 

 between the jwtato rows, and setting it on 

 fire. This is said to kill the beetles, and yet 

 not of much injuiy to the plant. 



We will continue the subject in our next 

 number. In the meantime our readers may 

 perceive hfiw indefinite it is to talk of the 

 potato-beetle. 



that are confined with them, in an incredibly 

 short space of time. 



Fig. 1 illustrates the "Striped Potato- 

 beetle," (Lytta vittnta) and is sufficiently dis- 

 tinguishable from the "ten-lined" or Colorado 

 beetle, to be recognized without a lengthy de- 

 scription. They differ very much in size, 

 although the largest of them are scarcely as 

 broad as the cut, excejit in the impregnated 

 females. The colors of this insect are yellow 

 and black, hut the lines on the wing covers 

 ar^ not imiformly the same in all the speci- 

 mens. In some tliere arc ticoand others three 

 black lines on each of the wing covers, and 

 the two varieties are often found at the same 



INSECTS, NOXIOUS AND BENEFICIAL. 



We are under obligations to Prof. Riley for 

 a comi)limeutary copy of his seventh valuable 

 contribution to the economic entomological 

 literature of the country.* It hardly expresses 

 its quality to call it a pampldet, it is ratlier an 

 octavo volume of 200 pages in paper covers, 

 and treats mainly of half a dozen of the most 

 destructive species of insects with which any 

 country could possibly l)e afflicted ; namely, 

 the "Colorado potato beetle," (Doryphora 10- 

 lineata,) the "Chinch Bug," (Micrnpualeucop- 

 terua,) the "Flat-headed apple-tree borer," 

 (Ckryfioleothris femorata,) the "Canker 

 Worms," (Anisopteryx vernata et poimtaria,) 

 the "Grape Phyllo,Kera," (PUylloMra vasta- 

 tria\ ) and the "Rocky Mountain Grasshopper, " 

 (Caloplemui spretus,) with 311 characteristic il- 

 lustrations, and many more figures ; on all of 

 which the liistorical and descriptive details 

 are so elaborate as to occupy the whole volume. 



The great loss to the country during the 

 year 1874 in fiirm, orchard and garden pro- 

 ducts, from the depredations of these insects 

 alone, is sueli as to amount to many millions 

 of dollars; and, yet, there are many wiseacres 

 in tlie halls of State and National legislation, 

 who woukl permit these millions of tribute to 



•'^Sevrnth Annual Report on tlie Noxioup, Deueficial, 

 and other IiisGcla of the State of Missouri. By Charles V. 

 Kiley, State Entomologist. 1876." 



he visited upon the people without appropri- 

 ating a single shilling for defence. 



If there is any one fact more strongly and 

 distinctly brought out through Prof. Riley's 

 inquiries, as detailed in his able report, it is 

 the one with which we have been forcibly im- 

 ])ressed for many years, and that is, even when 

 valuable reports are published by State or Na- 

 tional governments, they do not get into the 

 possession of the people who most need them, 

 and for whom they are ostensibly intended. 

 We have seen the most magnificent public 

 documents in the hands of those who had no 

 manner of use for them, never read them, and 

 who had little more conception of their utility 

 than a bear has of a watch. We have also 

 seen the shelves of second-hand book stands 

 teeming with them, a year or two after their 

 issue, but verj' few in the hands of our farm- 

 ers, fruit-growers and gardeners. Even if it 

 were true that our agricultural population do 

 not read as much upon these subjects as they 

 should do, when they have the opportunity, • 

 there is still no justification in depriving them 

 of that opportunity when a contingency super- 

 venes. 



There should be at least one library of 

 practical agricultural, entomological and 

 chemical works in every rural town or 

 township of the whole country, under the 

 supervision of proper townshij) officers, as 

 the depositories of State, National and 

 other documents, in duplication, and as a 

 resort for farmers to obtain the latest and best 

 information on all subjects relating to their 

 occupations; or to obtain books on a limited 

 loan; and there is where State and National 

 governments should deposit such documents, 

 and not merely in the hands of State legisla- 

 tors or members of Congress, who mainly dis- 

 tribute them among their political friends. 



Of course, there are many honorable excep- 

 tions ; but, judging from what we have seen, 

 and from the complaints often made, we are 

 convinced that the present distribution of 

 ])ublic documents is sadly in need of a thorough 

 reform. Even if it could be demonstrated 

 that those who dispose of them to book-deal- 

 ers are, or have been, recipients from public 

 officers, it only proves that the documents got 

 into the wrong hands, and that a proper dis- 

 crimination had not yet been made. 



But, to return to the matter of this report, 

 we would like to place more of it before our 

 readers than we possibly can in our present 

 number. The publication of such a report 

 itself speaks well for the liberality of the Leg- 

 islature and State Board of Agriculture of 

 Missouri. We wish we could say as much in 

 behalf of the "powers that be" of the State 

 of Pennsylvania ; it would help to maintain 

 her dignity as the "Key-stone" of the "Fed- 

 eral Arch." 



The few insects -whose "doings" in the ' 

 State of Missouri and the Northwest Prof. R. 

 jiortrays, form a fearful phalanx of destruction, 

 and, when combined in one season, they leave 

 little for the farmer to gather from the soil, 

 and are sure to leave distress and suffering — 

 if not absolute famine — in their wake. Tlie 

 Colorado beetle we have here among us now, 

 and there is no reason why we may not have 

 some of the others. 



In regard to the precautionary measures of 

 our English and Continental friends, the re- 

 port reiterates what we stated to an English 

 correspondent two years ago, to the effect 

 that, if the beetle reached their shores, it 

 would not be through the importation of po- 

 tatoes from America, and that it was likely to 

 get there whether they imported them or not, 

 unless they adopted measures involving abso- 

 lute non-intercourse. This spring these bee- 

 tles issued from cellars in the city of Lancas- 

 ter, where they had taken up their winter 

 quarters last fall, and we have crushed them 

 under our feet on the pavements. Having 

 now reached the seaboard, they will pass their 

 hybernating period in lumber-yards and ware- 

 houses, or any other convenient places, and 

 may be transported in the cargoes of sailing 

 or steaming vessels, just as they were brought 

 into the county of Lancaster at least three 



