'56 



ELEMENTARY ENTOMOLOGY 



striped cucumber-beetle (Diabrotica vittatd] is about 

 the same size, bright yellow with black stripes, and 

 is one of the worst pests of young cucumber and 

 melon vines. The larvae are long, slender whitish 

 grubs which feed on the roots. The twelve-spotted 

 Diabrotica is green with twelve black spots, with 

 similar food habits in the adult stage, but in the 

 cucumber beetle South the larvae do serious injury to the roots of 

 corn, while the larva of another pale green species, 

 known as the west- 

 ern corn rootworm, 

 is one of the worst 

 pests of corn in 

 the northern Miss- 

 issippi Valley. A 

 large group of small 

 species, with strong 

 hind legs which en- 

 able them to give 

 remarkable jumps, 

 are known as flea- 

 beetles. The potato 

 flea-beetle (Epitrix fuscula) and nearly related species are com- 

 monly abundant on young potato and tomato plants, and on egg- 

 plants, the leaves of which are 

 riddled as if they had been hit 

 with fine bird shot. The larvae are 

 small, slender white grubs, which 

 feed on the roots of various weeds 

 of the same botanical family, and 

 are rarely seen. All the garden 

 crops, as well as tobacco and corn, 

 are attacked by one or more spe- 

 cies of these flea-beetles. The lar- 

 vae of a few species of this family 



FIG. 225. Striped turnip flea-beetle are ]eaf m i nerSj t h e leaves of the 



locust being commonly affected by 



a. larva; b. adult. (From Riley, United , . . -. ... . , 



states Department of Agriculture) large, brown, blisterlike mines due 



FIG. 224. A, potato flea-beetle ; />, egg-plant flea-beetle. 

 (Both greatly enlarged) 



(After Chittenden, United States Department of Agriculture) 



