Report of the State Entomologist. 275 



Systena blanda Melsh. 



The Broad-striped Flea-beetle. 



(Ord. Coleopteba: Fam. CnEYSOMEiiiD^.) 



Melsheimek: in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., iii, 184—, p. 164. 



LeConte: in Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., xi, 1859, p. 26 (as Systena Mtceniata). 



CpoTCH: in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. [xxiv], 1873, p. 69. 



Glovbe: in Rept. Commis. Agricul. for 1873, p. 15-2, fig. 1 (feeds on corn). 



Le Bakon: 4th Eept. Ins. III., 1874, p. 173. 



FoEBES: 13th Kept. Ins. 111., 1884, p. 86 (on strawberry). 



Hbnsha-w: List of Coleop. of N. Amer., 1885, p. 112, No. 7003. 



Hunt: in Miss. Ess. Eoonom. Ent., 1886, p. 105-6 (bibliog. of corn-eating insects). 



LiNTNEB: in Count. Gent., Iii, 1887, p. 441 (on cotton). 



Examples of this beetle were received in May, from Jackson county, 

 Ga., accompanied with the following statement of serious injuries com- 

 mitted by them. 



Reported as a Cotton Pest. 



" I send you a small bug that is eating my cotton plants, and a few of the 

 plants that they have been feeding on. I do not find them except where 

 the cotton was planted on stubble land, on which the common ragweed 

 grew after oats, last year. A portion of the field was turned last Septem- 

 ber ; the balance was not plowed until March. The same little bug killed 

 almost entirely, last year, about eight acres of cotton that was planted 

 after ragweed. I will be greatly obliged for a suggestion of a practical 



remedy." 



Description of the Insect. 



The beetles sent with the above reported attack, are of the family of 

 Chrtjsonielidce, or leaf-eaters, and are known scientifically as Systena blanda 

 Mels. They belong to a variety known as bitceniata LeOonte, as kindly 

 determined by Dr. Horn, having been described as a distinct species from 

 some individuals of a large form and dark color, but which were sub- 

 sequently found to be but varietal features. The beetles are elongate, 

 slender, dull ochreous-yellow, with a black stripe on the inner and outer 

 margin of each wing-cover — the two inner ones from their coalescence 

 appearing as one; the space intermediate to the marginal black stripes 

 presenting the appearance of a broad yellow -stripe. The wing-covers 

 have the punctures irregularly distributed instead of arranged in rows. 



The beetle is figured by Mr, Glover in the Eeport of the Commissioner 



of Agriculture, for 1873. 



Crops Attacked by it. 



The insect has not hitherto been reported as attacking the cotton plant, 

 and indeed no notices have appeared of extensive injuries by it to any 

 valuable crop, except to corn. 



In June, of 1873, examples of the beetle were sent for name to the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture at Washington, from Chambersburgh, Pa., with the 

 statement that they had nearly devastated a field of corn, having eaten 

 the leaves and left the bare stalks standing. They were observed to be 

 very voracious and quite active, hopping like fleas, and hiding in the soil 

 if there was not time to escape by flying away. 



Dr. Le Baron has referred to it (toe. cit.) as injurious to young corn in 

 the Middle States, but has given no particulars, 



