INSECTS INJURIOUS TO BEANS AND PEAS 



115 



the poison on beans to be eaten green. 

 Owing to the sluggishness of the beetles 

 they may be handpicked in small gar- 

 dens. Clean culture and careful weed- 

 ing of native food-plants near cultivated 

 crops such as tick-trefoil and bush- 

 clover, are most important. 



The Bean Ladybird * 



The Bean Ladybird is the most 

 serious enemy of beans in Colorado, 

 New Mexico, Arizona, and Western 

 Kansas, whence it migrated from 

 Mexico. It is an interesting insect in 

 that only two other native species of 

 this family of beetles (Coccinellidce) feed 

 upon vegetation, the normal food of the 

 family being plant-lice, scale insects, 

 and soft-bodied larvae. 



Professor C. P. Gillette f describes 

 it as follows : 



" The beetle (Fig. 229, A) is oval in 

 outline, nearly one-third an inch in 

 length by one-fifth an inch in breadth, 

 of a light' yellow to a yellowish-brown 

 color and has eight small black spots on 

 each wing-cover. The mature larva is 

 about the same length as the beetle, is 

 of light yellow color and is covered with 

 stout branched spines that are black at 

 their tips, a larva being shown at C, 

 Fig. 229. The larva when fully grown 

 fastens the posterior end of its body to 

 the under side of a leaf and then in a 



FIG. 229. The bean lady- 

 bird (EpUachna varivestis 

 Muls.): a, adult beetle; b, 

 pupa; c, larva; d, bean pod 

 showing injury. (After 

 Gillette, Colo. Agr. Exp. 

 Sta.) 



* Epilachna varivestis Muls. Family Coccinellidce. 

 t Bulletin 19, Colo. Agr. Exp. Sta., p. 25. 



