BEETLES. 315 



Ghelymorpha cribraria, found on milkweed (Asclepius), is not as much flattened 

 as Casnida, is reddish, witli a number of round, blaclc spots on the pronotum and 

 elytra, giving it a slight resemblance to a lady-bird. 



Odontota has a somewhat quadrate, or wedge-shaped form, narrowed in front, 

 distinctly eleven-jointed antenn;e, and coarsely punctured elytral striee. 

 Odontota scutelluris, the flattened larvaj of which mine in the leaves of 

 the locust, is a common species, whose devastation extends to a number 

 of trees besides the locust. It is dull yellow, with a black stripe upon 

 the suture between the elytra, a black head, and is black beneath. The 

 larvae appear in New England in July,' and transform to beetles in ma. 352.— odon- 

 August, after a short pupation in the leaves of the locust. " "'"'' ™' 



Quite a number of Chrysomelidge have the hind femora much thickened, enabling 

 them to jump. Some of the smaller species jumj:) with great activity, and on that 

 account have been termed flearbeetles. Once the flea^beetles were united in the genus 

 JShltica, a name from a Greek word, meaning good at jumping, but they have been 

 divided since into numerous genera. Some of the flea^beetles hibernate as larvae, others 

 as imagos. Many of them are seriously injurious to plants, the leaves of which they 

 either mine or fill with small holes. In this way the leaves of tobacco are often rend- 

 ered unfit for cigar-making by a species of Crejndodera. 



Flea-beetles of the genera PsylKodes and Dibolia bore, in the larval state, in the 

 stems and leaves of succulent plants. P. chrysocephala, in Europe, devastates turnip 

 fields, but often turns its attention to other cro2:)s. D. ierea, a little, round blue-black 

 beetle, often swarms in this country from May until the beginning of winter, on the 

 j)lantain {Plantago major) the leaves of which it riddles. 



The early stages of Phyllotreta striolata, the turnip flea-beetle will suffice to give 

 an idea of the transformations of flea-beetles. The larva is linear, about 0.35 inch 

 long, has an anal proji-leg; it is whitish, with head and posterior extremity light 

 brown. The white pupa is enclosed in a little earthen cocoon beneath the ground. 

 Pupation lasts about two weeks. The beetle is less than 0.1 inch long, black, with a 

 wavy yellow stripe on each elytron. The larva feeds upon roots of cabbages and tur- 

 nips underground, causing death of the plants ; the imago eats the leaves of the same 

 plants. 



Phyllotreta nemorum, a European flea-beetle, devastates turnip-fields, while its 

 orange-yellow larva bores the leaves of the young plants ; like its American congener 

 it eats other species of cruciferous plants. Crepidodera cucumeris, a black flear-beetle 

 about 0.06 inch long, which, as its name indicates, infests the cucumber, does not con- 

 fine itself to that plant, but mines the leaves of potatoes and of many other plants. 

 C. carinata, a green sjDCcies, sometimes injures greenhouse plants, and seems especially 

 destructive to fuchsias. Graptodera chalybea, a flea-beetle usually steel-blue, and 

 about 0.15 inch long, is a pest to grape-growers, for it not only eats the leaves, but it 

 destroys the buds of the grape. Its lai'va feeds externallj^ on the leaves, descending 

 into the earth to pupate. The imagos hibernate, laying their orange-colored eggs in 

 clusters on the grape leaves in the spring. 



Among the large species of saltatorial Chrysomelidse, two genera, (Edionychis and 

 Disonycha, are represented by numerous species in the fauna of eastern North America, 

 and another genus, Blepharida, by a single species. The species of Disonycha are 

 often prettily colored. D. alternata, a common species on willows, is about 0.3 inch 

 long and half as wide, has a reddish head with black eyes and antennte, a reddish pro- 



