INSECT N0TI-7S. 277 



of the plant and upon the cage. The young, hatching, took at 

 once to the potato and fed there and the old bugs spent much 

 time with their beaks deep in the stalks drinking sap. The 

 beak punctures caused little swollen lumps to appear about the 

 black wound on the stalk and along the midvein of the leaves. 

 See Figs. 36 and 37. 



Podisus modestus. — A second and larger insectary colony of 

 the foregoing bugs, E. tristigma, was observed to be rapidly 

 diminishing in numbers. Examination showed that a speci- 

 men of the predaceous bug P. modestus had been inadvertently 

 caged with them. This bug was placed in a glass with 8 young 

 E. tristigma and was observed to stab and suck them dry. P. 

 modestus is an old and well-known enemy to dangerous insects. 

 It was observed this summer feeding upon larvae of the potato 

 beetle, currant worms, tent caterpillars, cabbage worms and 

 other caterpillar pests. See Fig. 44. 



Milo, July 5, the writer found a female of this species depos- 

 iting eggs on balsam fir. Two neat rows of eggs were started 

 on the underside of a needle when the bug was found, 6 eggs 

 having been deposited, the first at the tip of the needle. The 

 bug was suspended dorsum down with all 6 legs clasped about 

 a single needle, the abdomen tip pointed toward the tip of the 

 needle. The next 5 eggs were laid regularly and alternately 

 left and right and one egg was deposited after every 2 minutes' 

 wait, at 2.09, 2. 11, 2.13, 2.15, 2.17 P. M. exactly. The bug 

 then left the needle and the 11 eggs. 



Grasshoppers were at Foxcroft and other localities thick 

 enough to injure potato vines, particularly along the edges of 

 the fields, the common red-legged locust, Melanoplus femur- 

 rubrum, doing most of the damage. 



Blister Beetles. — From Columbia Falls, August 11 a box of 

 beetles came with the complaint that they were "very destruct- 

 ive on the potatoes, many times as bad as potato bugs." These 

 were the gray blister beetles, Macrobasis unicolor, Kirby, which 

 are now and then numerous enough to be very troublesome 

 locally. A black blister beetle, Epicauta pennsylvanica, also 

 fond of potatoes, is on the increase in the southern part of the 

 State. As the larvae of blister beetles feed largely upon grass- 

 hopper eggs, their appearance in large numbers is almost certain 

 to follow a grasshopper increase, and in reckoning their depre- 



