THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



25 



one commonly found in the more northerly parts 

 of the Northern States, where it usually takes 

 the place of the Striped Blister-beetle figured 

 above. It is of a uniform ash-gray color ; but 

 tliis color is given it by the presence upou its 

 body of minute ash-gray scales or short hairs, 

 and whenever these are rubbed off, which hap- 

 pens almost as readily as on the wings of a but- 

 terfly, the original black color of its hide appears. 

 It attacks not only potato vines, but also honey- 

 locusts, and especially the English or Windsor 

 bean. In one particular year, we have known 

 them, in coujuuction with about equal numbers 

 of the common Rose-bug (Macrodactyius sub- 

 spinosus, Linn.), to swarm upon every apple 

 tree in a small orchard in Northern Illinois, not 

 only eating the foliage, but gnawing into the 

 young apples. In 1868 they have been quite 

 common in parts of Illinois, IVIissouri, Wiscon- 

 sin, and Iowa ; and the people there had got so 

 habituated to the presence of the Colorado bug, 

 that in many cases they thought the Ash-gray 

 gentleman was a fresh invader from the region 

 of the Rocky Mountains ; whereas it has existed 

 everywhere in the more northei'ly parts of the 

 United States for time immemorial. 



The Black-kat Blister-beetle {Lytta 

 murina,* LeConte). — Of tliis species (Fig. 

 14 b), which is entirely black, we received num- 

 erous living specimens in July, 1867, from D. 

 W. Kauflinan, Esq., Pres. Iowa State Hort. 

 Society, with an account of its swarming in that 

 mouth upon the potato vines near Des Moines, 

 Iowa. There is a vei-y similar species, the 

 Black Blister-beetle {Lytta atrata, Fabr.),from 

 which the Black-i-at Blister-beetle is distinguish- 

 able only by having four raised lines placed 

 lengthways upon each wing-case, and by the 



dilated; which Is also the case with the species next to be 

 refen-edto. (Fig. U d, represents the male antenna;, abore; 

 that of female below.) Hence, in splitting up the extensive 

 and unwieldy old genus [Lytta) , these and certain allied 

 species have been very properly placed in a genus by them- 

 selves [MacTobaaU) ; while the Striped Blister-beetle and the 

 Margined Blister-beetle, not possessing this peculiarity, are 

 gi-ouped together under a distinct genus (Epicauta) . Practi- 

 cal men, however, who do not desire to trouble theli- heads 

 with these niceties, will find it most convenient to class 

 them all together under the old genus (Lytta) ; and this we 

 have accordingly done. 



• The Latin word ' ' murina ' ' properly means ' ' mouse- 

 colored;" and it is not fvisy to nml.rstand, why a'black 

 insect should receive lli. -,„ , iiir ,k.i,i, ,,{'' mouse-colored." 

 We have got over the .liiliniin liy .u|. ],.„;„- that the author 

 of the name refei-red tu tin- r„]„r uf ilii- black rat— thi; mus 

 rattua of Linnajus— formerly the only rat that ti-oubled us in 

 America, but now almost completely driven out by another 

 imported species— the Brown or Norway ratHust as the im- 

 ported white man is at the present day graduaUy extii-pating 

 the Bed Indian, and the Red Indian formerly drove south- 

 wards his mound-building Aztec predecessors. 



two first joints of the antennas being greatly 

 dilated and lengthened in the males, as above 

 in Fig. 14 c. Tliis latter species has been cur- 

 rently asserted by authors to infest the potato 

 vine. We believe that in many cases, at all 

 events, tliis is an error; and that the latter 

 species has been mistaken for the former. The 

 true Black Blister-beetle we have never met 

 with, except quite late in the year, namely 

 about the last of August or the fore part of 

 September ; and then always upon the flowers 

 of the Golden-rod, the Tliistle, etc. The experi- 

 ence of Ml-. Ulke, of Washington, D. C, to 

 whom we referred upon tliis subject, coincides 

 with ours ; and surely a beetle winch does not 

 make its appearance till so late a period in the 

 year as the last of August cau scarcely ever be 

 injurious to the potato-crop. It would be very 

 desirable that persons meeting with Blister-bee- 

 tles, of a black color and without any pale 

 markings whatever, upon potato vines, at any 

 period of the year, should forward specimens to 

 us. The question to be decided is certainly of 

 no very great practical importance ; but scien- 

 tifically considered, it is a curious and interest- 

 ing one, as tending to demonstrate that even the 

 very best entomologists are not universally 

 infallible. 

 The Margined Blister-beetle* {Lytta mar- 

 CFig. 15.] ginata, Fabr.) — This species (Fig. 15) 

 may be at once recognized by its 

 general black color, and the narrow 

 ash-gi-ay edging to i^ wing-cases. It 

 usually feeds on certain jvild plants ; 

 but Mr. Barber, of Wisconsin, found 

 it, but only in small numbers, oii his 

 potato vines in 1866 ; and in 1868 wc 

 were shown three specimens taken 

 and'a7"^y. ou potato viucs near Champaign, 

 Central Illinois, in company with the Striped 

 Blister-beetle. In the same year, 1868, it was 

 more abundant than any other species in a potato 

 field in Union county, Southern Illinois. 



•This is the name formerly given by almost all entomolo- 

 gists to this species; and a mo.st appropriate one it is, in 



view of the remarkable 

 cases {elytra) . But of la 

 that, as long ago as tlie 

 several years before Fabr 

 insect as the ' ' Margined 1' 



h-gr 



jf its black 



1 Wk hist century, ami 

 iR-.l and described this 

 ■tlr" (Lytlamarginata) , 

 it was named and d.-Miilii d a lli.> " A-h--ray Blister-bee- 

 tle" (Lytta cinerea) . l.\ l'<.ii-irr. Ibtici . in accordance 

 with tile inexui-alilr •■ law .il | 1 ii nity , ■ ' tlir (.bedieut scien- 

 tiflc world has been call, d iiimii i.. adwjit Fn, aster's name for 

 this species; and as two spi i-ir- b.-hiii-iii-,' to the same genus 



Ash-gray Blister-beetle of Fabriiiiis (Lylla cinerea), which 

 is really ash-gray all over, has been re-christened by the 

 name of " I-abricius's Blister-beetle" (Lytta Fabricii). 

 Positively, this continual chopping and changing in soieutilic 



