92 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of the third brood pass the winter in the pupa state, though 

 the normal habit is to transform to beetles. Each female is 

 capable of depositing upwards of a thousand e^gs before she 

 becomes barren, and in from thirty to forty days from the 

 time they are deposited, they will have produced perfect 

 beetles. These beetles are again capable of depositing eggs 

 in about two weeks after issuing from the ground, and thus, in 

 about fifty days after the egg is laid, the offspring begins to 

 propagate. It is formed in a little cavity which the larva had 

 made perfectly smooth and hard, and it is of the same color 

 as the larva. The beetle, on first emerging from it, is quite 

 pale and soft, without any markings whatever." 



Although no species of this family are known to be poison- 

 ous, yet it is probably true, from the facts adduced by Riley 

 and others, that the fumes arising from the bodies of a large 

 number of them, when killed by hot water, produce sickness. 

 This is due, perhaps, to a volatile poison thrown off imme- 

 diately after death ; but, since fowl feed upon them to a large 

 extent, and no one has been known to have been poisoned, at 

 least severely, in handling them, there is no reason why hand- 

 picking should not be resorted to. 



ENEMIES OF THE COLORADO POTATO-BEETLE. 



Besides a number of bugs and beetles which devour this 

 beetle, a species of Lydella (L. doryphorce, Riley) is very 

 destructive to it. Mr. Riley sa} r s : - This fly destroyed fully 

 ten per cent, of the second brood, and fifty per cent, of the 

 third brood of potato-beetles that were in my garden. It 

 bears a very close resemblance, both in color and size, to the 

 common house-fly, but is readily distinguished from the latter 

 by its extremely brilliant silver-white face." No Ichneumon 

 parasite has yet been found preying upon it. 



REMEDIES. 



The surest and safest remedy is hand-picking. As soon as 

 the eggs are laid, they should be looked for on the underside 

 of the leaf, and the leaf torn off and burned. Afterwards, the 

 grubs and beetles should be picked off. The following extract 

 from a correspondent of the New York "Tribune" shows the 

 efficacy of this remedy : "From June 7 to August 17, I have 



