64 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO GARDEN AND ORCHARD CROPS. 



dark brown in color. The entire body, including the anterior portion 

 of the head, is sparsely covered with whitish pubescence. The head 

 is retractile and there are no signs of legs, but in their place each thor- 

 acic segment bears on its ventral surface a pair of rather strong bristles 

 which are evidently of assistance to the larva in crawling. In the 

 contracted position assumed upon death the larva measures about 

 1.5 mm , the diameter being about one-third as much. 

 The mature larva and the pupa are unknown. 



LITERATURE. 



The first notice of this species published was by the veteran economic 

 entomologist, Benjamin D. Walsh, who gave an illustrated account of 

 it in the Prairie Farmer of July 18, 1863 (p. 37), based on the state- 

 ment of an Iowa correspondent, who wrote that the beetles were "doing 

 great injury to apple and cherry trees, as well as gooseberry bushes." 



In the year 1871 the late Dr. Eiley published in his third Missouri 

 Eeport (p. 58) a short note on this species, drawing attention to the 

 fact that the beetle is quite frequently met with on different fruit trees, 

 doing considerable injury to the plants mentioned by Walsh, in gnaw- 

 ing the twigs and fruit. He stated that the species is a native of the 

 more Western States and found much more commonly in the western 

 part of Missouri, in Iowa, Kansas, and toward the mountains, than on 

 the " eastern side of the great Father of Waters." 



The species next attracted attention in 1879, receiving mention in 

 Professor Comstock's annual report as entomologist of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture in that year (p. 249). Beetles were received 

 June 1, 1879, from Madisonville, Monroe County, Tenn., with the 

 remark that they were injuring onions. Onion stalks accompanying the 

 communication were riddled with holes gnawed by the beetles. Later, 

 a report was received from Sweetwater, in the same county, that these 

 beetles had injured a field of 2 acres of onions, one- fourth of the crop 

 having been destroyed. The beetles were stated on the authority of 

 Mr. Thos. G. Boyd to have made their appearance on early vegetables 

 as fast as the crops came up. They were noticed upon onions in Febru- 

 ary and were reported to have destroyed radishes, cabbages, beans, 

 watermelons, muskmelons, cucumbers, squashes, corn, and beets. 



The following year the species was reported by Dr. Eiley to have 

 been received from Felton, Del., with the statement that it was "de- 

 stroying early cabbages, eating the leaves and sucking the juice from 

 the stems." The fact was also brought forward that this species was 

 quite injurious to corn in 1873 (Amer. Ent., vol. in, p. 200). In the 

 annual report of this Department for 1884 (pp. 300, 301) the same 

 writer also treated of this beetle somewhat at length, but without 

 adding any new facts worthy of mention to what has been previously 

 reported. 



In 1882 Prof. S. A. Forbes found this species feeding on red clover 

 blossoms (12th Eept. St. Ent. 111., p. 104), and in 1886, in a paper before 





