43G INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



The Mottled Tortoise-beetle * 



This beetle is strikingly different from the other species in 

 being black, marked with six irregular golden spots, and with a 

 band of black extending across the shoulders to the edge of the 

 transparent margin of the wing-covers. The larva is a pale 

 straw-yellow color during the first four stages when it carries 

 excrement on the fseci-fork in a peculiar branched shape much 

 like that of the black-legged tortoise-beetle larva, but after the 

 last moult the color changes to a pea green, and all the excrement 

 is removed from the fseci-fork, which makes the larva very 

 difficult to recognize on a green leaf. Inasmuch as the larva 

 does not feed and remains entirely motionless during this last 

 stage, this change of color is very evidently of protective value. 

 The pupa is also a bright green, marked only by a black ring 

 around each of the first pair of abdominal spiracles. 



The Argus Tortoise-beetle t 



This is the largest of the tortoise-beetles found on sweet 

 potato, though not as common as the preceding, and is also 

 injurious to raspberry and horseradish, and it feeds on milk- 



FIG. 313. The argus tortoise-beetle (Chelymorpha argus Licht.): a, beetle; 

 b, eggs; c, larva all enlarged. 



weeds and species of Convolvulus. The beetles are usually a brick- 

 red color, with six black dots on the prothorax and six on each 

 wing-cover, but they are exceedingly variable in size and color, 



* Coptocycla signifera Herbst. Family Chrysomelidoe. 

 t Chelymorpha argus Licht. Family Chrysomelidce. 



