PACKARD.] COLORADO GREEN FLEA-BEETLE. 757 



bug, not only in the non-possossiou of wings, out in their autennse being but four instead 

 of live-jointed, as they afterward become." The mature bug is prettily marked with 

 polished orange and blue-black, the relative proportion of the two colors being very 

 variable and the orange inclining either to yellow or red (Riley). Uhler says that 

 various patterns of markings and colors, ranging from yellow to steel-blue, are con- 

 spicuously exhibited in this pretty but unstable and pernicious insect. 



Remedy. — The best aud surest, though most costly, remedy is hand- 

 picking. 



The CoLOiJADO Green Flea-Beetle, Orchestris albionica Le Coute. — Very abundant 

 in Colorado at different elevations, eatiug holes in the leaves of cabbages and radishes, 

 etc. ; a small green flea-beetle, about one-tenth of a line in length. 



This little flea-beetle is very abundant in Colorado at all elevations, 

 and is destined to become a great plague. At Denver it was very 

 abundant in June and July on cruciferous plants, espe- 

 cially the cabbage and radish, eating holes in the leaves. 

 At Golden it was extremely abundant on young cabbage 

 and radishes. At Idaho it was abundant on young tur- 

 nips and potatoes, eatiug holes in the leaves. At Manitou 

 these little beetles swarmed on beds of radishes and cab- 

 bages; the i)lants were small, just coming up, and these 

 little pests were eating them up. Multitudes of them were 

 found on the summit of Pike's Peak, on the grass and Fig. 28.— Colo- 

 Alpine flowers, among the patches of snow, having prob- rado green 

 ably been borne up from the plains and parks below by Flea-Beetle, 

 currents of air. Its habits are probably nearly identical with those of 

 the turnip flea-beetle, to the account of which the reader is referred. 

 The larva is to be looked for in the roots of the plants on which it 

 feeds. 



Descnplion. — It is a very small, green beetle, not quite one line in length ; uniformly 

 deep, shining olive-green. The surface of the body, especially the wing-covers, is 

 •coarsely punctured with little pits. Antennae pubescent, dark, with the third, fourth, 

 and fifth joints reddish-brown. Legs concolorous with the body ; tarsi with a brown- 

 ish tinge. 



Remedies. — The use of Paris green on beds of young plants, and 

 dusting ashes, or air-slacked lime over them, together with the planting 

 -of abundant seed. 



The Pitchy-Legged Weevil, Otiorhynchus picipes (Fabricius). — Damaging young 

 cabbages, kale, broccoli, and other garden-vegetables ; a pitchy-brown weevil, a quarter 

 of an inch in length. 



A weevil has for several years been not uncommon in Essex County, 

 Massachusetts, which in England, from which it has been imported, is 

 often, as Mr. Curtis says, "a dreadful pest in gardens, committing sad 

 ravages on vines in hot-houses and on wall-fruit, during the night, when 

 they emerge from their hiding-places in old walls, from under the bark, 

 and clods of earth, to revel upon the branches of the new wood in 

 April, or to feed upon the young shoots, which soon become black. 

 They likewise injure rasi)berry i)lants in spring, by eating through the 

 flowering stems and leaves, and they nibble off the bark, and eat out 

 the buds of apple and pear trees as early as February or March." But 

 they are said by Curtis to do still more damage to pease, turnips, and 

 young winter-plants, as savoy, kale, broccoli, etc. 



I have detected this weevil on the beach-pea during the last week in 

 July at Salem, Mass., and it is not uncommon in gardens, and even, if 

 I am not mistaken as to the identity of the insect, will enter ferneries 



