INSECTS ATTACKING CUCURBITACEOUS PLANTS. 8ll 



their eggs on the under side of the leaves. The eggs hatch in 

 about twelve days, and the larvae at once commence to feed 

 upon the leaves, attacking them from the under side. The larvae 

 appear about the middle of July and become full grown early in 

 August, when they assume the pupa stage, which lasts six days 

 before the adults emerge. 



The adult is nearly hemispherical in shape, slightly oval, about 

 one-third of an inch long and slightly over one-fifth of an inch 

 broad. It is greatly convex, and of a yellowish or reddish brown 

 color marked with black spots, seven on each wing-cover and three 

 or four smaller ones on the thorax. 



The larva is yellow, with black branching spines, and about 

 half an inch in length. The spines are arranged in six longitudinal 

 rows. This insect is shown in Figure 13 and on Plate LIIIc. 

 Its work is shown on Plate LII b. 



The larvae feed chiefly on the under sides of the leaves late 

 in July and early in August, and the adults are generally found 

 at the same time, as well as both earlier and later, feeding upon 

 the upper surface. The adult has the peculiar habit of marking 

 out with its mandibles a definite area on the leaf and then feeding 

 within this area. It is thought that this procedure causes the 

 tissues to wilt, and that this somehow better suits the insect. 



A brief account of this insect was printed in the Report of this 

 station for 1898, p. 269, and more extended accounts of it have 

 been published by Professor John B. Smith, in Bulletin 94 of the 

 New Jersey Station, and by Dr. F. H. Chittenden, in Bulletin 

 19, New Series (p. 11), of the Bureau of Entomology at 

 Washington. 



The squash lady-beetle can be controlled easily by the use of 

 the arsenical poisons. 



The Squash Bug. 



Anasa tristis De Greer. 



The squash bug, or "stink bug," is a serious pest of squashes 



and pumpkins, though it does not as a rule attack melons and 



cucumbers. It punctures the tissues of a vein on the under side 



of a leaf and, sucking out the sap, causes the leaf to wilt badly and 



die. The adult bugs are about three-fourths of an inch in length, 



dark gray or brownish, and are rather conspicuous objects on 



the under surface of the leaves. The eggs are dark brown and 



57 



