ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE STRIPED SQUASH 
BEETLE. 
BY HENRY SHIMER, M.D. 
———_-o0-—_ 
Durme the past ten or twelve years I have continued every 
summer to make observations on the habits of the Striped Squash 
beetle, or Cucumber beetle (Diabrothica vittata Fabr.). Since I 
discovered and published the account of the breeding place of 
these insects, in the roots, chiefly, of squash, cucumber, melon and 
similar plants, I have looked long and closely for some natural 
enemy of the insect. Almost all insects are liable to be preyed 
upon by some kind of parasite, which is most efficient in checking 
their undue multiplication, and far more useful in restraining them 
than anything that man is capable of doing. 
But what insect preys on the Striped. Squash beetle it ap- 
peared difficult to discover. The young appears quite safe from 
such enemies, living as it does either Fig. 60. 
on or in the roots of the vines, and, 
I presume, is almost free from such 
annoyances. The eggs are deposited 
on the root at the surface of the 
ground, or on the root just below the 
` upper loose particles of earth, for al- 
though the perfect beetle does not 
burrow into the compact ground, yet 
it often is found down along the stem 
or root, just below the surface, under 
the loose, dry clots or finer particles of earth which are not 
pressed closely, or beaten down by rains and hardened in drying, 
“baked,” as farmers say. In this situation the egg, before it is 
hatched, may be, and doubtless is, sometimes preyed upon by pre- 
-daceous, ground beetles, but by what insects and to what extent I 
have no means of knowing from actual observation. 
Last May and June we were annoyed by an unusual number of 
Striped Squash beetles that had developed from the larve that 
entered the ground the previous autumn. As the, season was 
uncommonly dry, we expected, judging from past experience, that 
(21 
Parasite of the Squash Beetle. 
