THE LEAP BEETLES. 



1153 



2t3(i (iJTS'.li. Leptinotaksa deckmlixeata Say. .Tnnrn. Phil. .Vend. Xat, 

 Sei.. III. ISlM. 4.:3; ibid. II, i'ls. 

 0^•al, robust, eouvex. Lmll yellow ; thorax 5 



with two sliuit. (livergeut lines on disk and si.x: 

 small spots each side, Ijlack ; elytra with suture 

 and five narrow lines on each side, black, the 

 second and third united near apex ; knees and 

 tarsi blackish. Length 0..5-11 mm. (Fife'. 4117.1 



The original home of this well-knovvn 

 1h etle was (.'olorado, Say having deseriliei 

 it from the Upper ^Missouri River, where it 

 fed upon th(- sand iii'tth\ Solnnum rosi ra- 

 in in Dunal. It made its way Lrradttally 

 eastward, migrating- from one potato patch 

 to another, aided. d6iibth;^ss, hy railways 

 and commeiX'e, tmtil it has spread nver the 

 whole of the eastern I'nited States. It first i-ig i-?- a, aauit beetle; b, hind 



tur-ii' of same; 3, third tarsal joint; 



appeared in numhers in Indiana about *. true fourth joint; .5, so-caiied fourth 



-t ■ T 1 n 1 1 n Ti joint. (After Sliarp.; 



JSds. and the first lieetles ever collected by 



the writer were these "new-fashiimed" or "(Njlorado potato bvigs," 

 an old tin l)asin and a stout stiek being the paraphernalia used. 

 Siififice it to say thej'' were not taken for a collection, but at a fixed 

 sum per hundred, jiaid to the children to clear the ])atch of the 

 pests. ^\fterwards the dis(_overy that a solution of I'aris ijreeti 

 "would fix 'em" put the tin l>asin metliod of collection out of vogtte. 

 For a number of years the jiotato industry in the State was al- 

 most destroyed by this beetle, btit its damages gradually lessened. 

 until now they appear much fewer in numbers than between the 

 years 1870 and 1890, and are readily kept in cheek by Paris green 

 and other arsenites. The beetle hibernates in the ground, both as 

 pupa and imago, and begins to mate about ^lay first, each female 

 producing 750 to l,Ofl() eggs, these being laid at intervals through 

 forty days. Under normal conditions it reijuires but about 36 days 

 from the laying of the eggs to the perfecting of the imago, and in 

 about 14 days after emerging, the beetle begins to lay a second gen- 

 eration of eggs. The first or spring brood hecomes fertile, there- 

 fore, about Jul.y 1st, and the second generation by September 1st. 

 It attacks not only potatoes, but egg plant and other members of 

 the Solanacere or potato family. The rcise-breasted grosbeak, yel- 

 low-billed cuckoo or rain-criiw, and the quail feed upon the larva' of 

 the beetle, as do also turkeys and occasionall>- chickens. 



