150 



THE MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION 



blister plasters. The blistering- material is prepared by killing the 

 beetles and allowing their bodies to dry, when they are ground to a 

 fine powder. The European species used for this purpose is known 

 as the Spanish fly, but our American species possess this same 

 ouality. 



Our collections contain at least sixteen species of Meloidae from 

 Montana but the spotted blister beetle is by far the most injurious 

 one. It is particularly abundant in the eastern part of the state 

 I\^ot much has been published regarding this species, though the 

 habits in general of the genus Epicanta are fairly well known. Some 

 of the species are known to feed in their early stages on the eggs of 

 grasshoppers and it is likely that this species does so also. 



The spotted blister beetle has the general appearance of all 



The Spotted Blister-Beetle — nearly three times natural size i Chittenden 

 Division of Entomology, U. S. Department of Agriculture.) 



beetles, and has an elongated body, three pairs of rather long legs, 

 a pair of thread-like antennae. The body has a distinct gray cast, 

 due to the fine gray hairs, but regularly arranged spots appear where 

 the hairs are absent and the black body wall shows through. The 

 beetles vary greatly in size, the smallest being a little over one- 

 fourth of an inch in length and the largest, upward of a half inch 

 long. 



The spotted blister beetle feeds on a variety of plants and is 

 partial to sugar beets, garden beets and alfalfa. It sometimes ap- 

 pears in enormous numbers in alfalfa fields and does considerable 

 damage. Frequently they are more or less injurious to sugar beets, 

 sometimes eating off large patches in fields about the time of thin- 



