THE BEETLES: ORDER COLEOPTERA 139 



about midsummer. In a short time, these lay eggs for a 

 second brood of larvae that develop into adult beetles in 

 autumn. These beetles hibernate until the following 

 spring. There are thus two broods of larvae each season. 

 The fact that this Southern Corn Rootworm hibernates 

 in the adult condition and that the beetles can fly freely 

 from place to place, shows at once that this pest cannot be 

 checked by the simple method of rotation that serves the 

 purpose in the case of the Northern Corn Rootworm. 

 Rotation of crops will be helpful, especially if care is 

 taken not to plant to corn those fields to which the adult 

 beetles were attracted the previous autumn by an abun- 

 dant supply of succulent food. 



FLEA BEETLES 



There are several species of Flea Beetles which also be- 

 long to this leaf-beetle family. Some of the larger Flea 

 Beetles have a life history similar to that of the Asparagus 

 Beetle and the Colorado Potato Beetle, both larvae and 

 adults feeding upon the foliage of the food plants. The 

 Grape Flea Beetle is an excellent example of 

 these insects. It often becomes a destructive 

 pest in vineyard regions. 



The smaller Flea Beetles, however, are more 

 universally distributed and affect a great vari- 

 ety of cultivated crops. These are tiny beetles 



; , . , , , . , . ^ , FLEA BEETLE 



which are able to jump great distances when Magnified 



disturbed, and which are only too commonly 

 found upon potato, tomato, cabbage, and other garden 

 plants. They not only do decided damage by eating out 

 the surface of the foliage, but they afford an easy ingress 

 for the germinating spores of many kinds of fungous dis- 

 eases. In their larval state, some, at least, of these smaller 



