24 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



all beetles have fnll-sized wings snugly folded 

 up under their wing-cases, and, whenever they 

 choose it, can fly with the greatest ease. Tliis 

 is the case with the tour krads of beetles infest- 

 ing the potato, whose habits we are now about 

 to relate. As these four species all agi-ee with 

 one another in living under ground and feeding 

 upon various roots, during the larva state, and 

 in emerging to attack the foliage of the potato, 

 only when in the course of the summer they 

 have passed into the perfect or beetle state ; it 

 mil be quite unnecessary to repeat this statement 

 under the head of each of the four. In fact, the 

 four are so closely allied, that they all belong to 

 the same family of beetles, the blister-beetles 

 {Lytta family) — to which also the common im- 

 ported Spanish-fly or blister-beetle of the di-ug- 

 gists appertains — and all of them will raise just 

 as good a blister as that does, and are equally 

 poisonous when taken internally in large doses. 

 CFi!!. 13.: The Striped BUster-beetle (Fig. 



' 13) is almost exclusively a southern 

 species, occurring in particular 

 years veiy abundantly on the potato 

 vine in Central and Southern Illi- 

 nois, and also in Missouri, but in 

 North Illinois being usually so rare, 

 that in the course of ten years col- 

 Coiois— Yei- lecting, we have scarcely met with 

 low au,i black, j^j^jf ^ ^Q^gjj specimens of it there. 

 In 1868, however, it is reported by Mr. Gra- 

 ham Lee, of Mercer county, N. 111., and also by 

 Capt. Beebe, of Galena, N. 111., as occurring in 

 very large numbers upon theh- potatoes. And, 

 according to Dr. Harris, it is occasionally found 

 even in New England. In some specimens, the 

 broad outer black stripe on the vring-cases is 

 divided lengthways by a slender yellow line, so 

 that instead of two there are three black stripes 

 on each wing-case; and in the same field we 

 have noticed, on two separate occasions, that all 

 the intei'mediate grades between the two vari- 

 eties maybe met with; thus proving that the 

 four-striped individuals do not form a distinct 

 species, as was formerly supposed by the Euro- 

 pean entomologist, Fabricius, but are mere 

 varieties of the same species to which the six- 

 striped individuals appertain. In July, 1868, 

 we found the insect very abundant on the potato 

 in Champaign Co., Dl., and Mi-. Merton Dunlap 

 of Champaign told us, that he had succeeded in 

 di'iviug them with brush ofi" his potato-patch on 

 to some old hay which he had prepared to re- 

 ceive them, and then, setting fire to the hay, 

 consumed them bodily. Many such cases may be 

 found recorded in different agricultural journals. 

 Mr. M. S. Hill, of East Liverpool, Ohio, 



states in the Practical Entomologist (vol. I, p. 

 197), that this species had swarmed on the potato 

 vines in his neighborhood in 1866, and that " the 

 most successful method of destrojing them yas 

 by placing between the furrows or rows, dry hay 

 or straw, and setting it on fire." " The bugs," 

 lie adds, '• were thus nearly all destroyed, and 

 the straw burning very quickly did not injure 

 the vines. Might not this remedy be applied 

 with success in the destruction of your new and 

 highly-improved Colorado Potato-bug?" Per- 

 haps it might ; but the process would have to be 

 repeated a great many times. For, although 

 there is but one brood of any of these potato- 

 feeding Blister-beetles in a year, and they con- 

 sequently last comparatively but a short time 

 upon the vines, yet there are about three suc- 

 cessive generations of the Colorado Potato-bug 

 in one season, and they may often be met with, 

 in some one of their stages, upon the potato 

 plant all thi-ough the growing season. As to 

 driving Colorado potato-bugs with brush out of 

 a potato patch, that is entirely out of the ques- 

 tion. The larvsB have got no wings, and conse- 

 quently can not fly at all; and even in the 

 hottest time of the day and in the hottest season, 

 the perfect beetles can not be forced to take wing 

 and fiy off, as can be done without much diffi- 

 culty under such circumstances with any of the 

 potato-feeding Blister-beetles. The Colorado 

 bugs can fly, it is true, and they do fly when the 

 sun shines hot upon them ; but they are very 

 independent bugs, and will only fly just when 

 it suits them to do so. 



Ml'. S. P. Boardman (" Wool-grower ") says 

 that he has discovered that this striped Blister- 

 beetle, like the Colorado bug, eats all other 

 potato tops in preference to Peach-blows. {N. 

 T. Sem. Tribune, July 13, 1868.) This is cer- 

 tainly a new fact, so far as regards the fonner 

 species, though it has long been ascertained to 

 be true of the latter. 



CFig. ".] 



Colors— (a) ash gray; (6) black. 



The Ash-gray Blister-beetle,* (Lytta cin- 

 erea,Fabr.) — This species (Fig. 14 a, male)isthe 



•In the male of this species, but not m the female, the 

 first two joints of the antennas are greatly elongated and 



