12 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO GARDEN AND ORCHARD CROPS. 



spots, as shown in the illustration (fig. 1, c). The prothorax bears nor- 

 mally four spots, and each elytron has seven. The eyes, tips of man- 

 dibles, aud metasternum are also black. The beetle measures about a 

 third of an iuch (8 ram ), its length being about a fifth longer than its 

 width (5.5 mm ). The egg is yellow, about three-tenths of an inch (1.5 mm ) 

 long and of the elongate subcylindricai form illustrated at d. Its sur- 

 face is somewhat pulverulent and sculptured as shown, highly magnified, 

 at e. Eggs are deposited, usually in irregular clusters of from half a 

 dozen to fifty or more, on the under surface of a leaf. In two large 

 bunches observed 51 and 52 eggs were counted. The larva is yellow, 

 like the eggs, and even when first hatched is covered with spines, 

 arranged in six rows except on the first thoracic segment, where there 

 are only four. A mature larva with its spiny armament is figured at a. 

 The pupa, also yellow, is shown at b. 



The species is indigenous to America and ranges from Maine and 

 Canada in the north to the Gulf States. It is essentially an eastern 

 form, occurring in the United States most abundantly along the Atlan- 

 tic seaboard, and does not appear to be injurious west of the Missis- 

 sippi Eiver, although its occurrence has been reported in Kansas and 

 Minnesota. It is also recorded by different writers from Mexico, Cuba, 

 and the Antilles; Guatemala, Honduras and British Honduras; Nica- 

 ragua, Costa Eica, Panama, Colombia, Argentina, and Brazil. 



The genus is tropical, all of the three species which are found in the 

 United States being also native to Mexico, where the present species is 

 widely distributed. In the latter country and Central America, the 

 center of greatest abundance of the genus, many more species are 

 known. The genus is remarkable as being the only one known in the 

 great family Coccinellidas, which is strictly herbivorous in all stages. 



Judging by published accounts, personal inquiry and experience, this 

 species is most troublesome in the following States, mentioned in 

 approximate order of importance: New Jersey, New York (Long 

 Island), Maryland, Alabama, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, 

 Massachusetts, and Georgia. It is also destructive, according to Mr. 

 G. C. Champion, in Central America. 



During the season of 1897 this species was observed to be present in 

 destructive abundance only in one locality visited, at Glen Echo, Md., 

 where it was found upon cucumber and melon as well as on squash, but 

 by far more injurious upon the latter plant. In 1898 it was very 

 generally injurious in Maryland and Virginia in the vicinity of the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia. It occurred in destructive numbers in nearly every 

 field of cucurbits visited. The list of localities where it was observed 

 includes the District of Columbia, on our experimental plat where the 

 species probably survived the winter from specimens used in rearing 

 experiments the year before; at Kensington, College Station, Pooles- 

 ville, and Marshall Hall, Md. ; Colonial Beach, and Norfolk, Va. In the 

 last-mentioned locality it was reported very injurious by Dr. E. F. 

 Smith, of this Department. It was destructive in the entire neighbor- 

 hood of Norfolk. 



