THE CUCUMBER FLEA-BEETLE. 89 



The above summarizes practically all that has been published on this 

 species, at least in its economic or biological aspect. 



Of its distribution Dr. Horn was at, fault in stating that it '• seems 

 to be a widely distributed species over the entire country east of the 

 Mississippi, also in Missouri. 7 ' It appears to have very much the same 

 distribution as the congeneric parvula. According to Mr. Charles 

 Liebeck, it is generally distributed, though rare, in New Jersey. It 

 does not occur in Few York State to my knowledge. 



In the neighborhood of the District of Columbia it is rather more 

 abundant than either parvula or cucumeris, and although it probably 

 infests all the Solanaceae, it shows, in the writer's experience, a marked 

 fondness for eggplant when this can be obtained, hence the name "egg- 

 plant flea beetle," which is here proposed. It is also common on potato, 

 but rather rare on tobacco. I have not found it at all on tomato. 



The following list of recorded localities is from specimens in the 

 National Museum and in local collections, or from published records: 

 New Jersey; River View, Marshall Hall, Cabin John, Md. ; Tenually- 

 town, Washington, D. C; Rosslyn, Cherry Dale, Pennington Gap, 

 Va.; Bound Knob, N. C; Marietta, Ohio; Kentucky; Illinois; St. 

 Charles, St. Louis, Mo.; Savannah, Ga. ; Bayou Sara, La.; Jackson, 

 Miss.; Nebraska; Kansas; Columbus, Tex. ; Los Angeles, Sonoma, and 

 Pomona, Cal. 



It is doubtfully recorded from Guanajuato, Mexico ( Jacoby). 



THE CUCUMBER PLEA-BEETLE. 



(Epitrix cucumeris Harr.) 



Owing to the scarcity of material at the time when and in the places 

 where sought, nothing of interest was gained from personal experience 

 with this insect the past year. It is desirable, 

 however, to place on record the following facts 

 concerning it, gleaned from one of our corre- 

 spondents, Mr. C. Cronk, New Hamburg, N. Y. : 



July 22, 1898, he wrote that the beetles and 

 their larvae were very destructive to tomatoes in 

 his vicinity. In response to a request for larvae 

 our correspondent sent, under date of August 5, 

 two minute larvae taken from about the roots of 

 tomato. Although when they were received they fig. 20.— EpUHx cucumeris: 

 were not in fit condition for study, there was no adult b f tle < much enlar § ed 



^ 7 (original). 



doubt as to their identity, as this is the only 



flea-beetle of the genus Epitrix which is positively known to occur in 



that latitude, or, in fact, in any portion of New York State. 



Adult beetles collected near Washington were parasitized, evidently 

 by the same species mentioned as preyii.g upon JEJ. parvula. 



"Cucumber flea beetle" is an obvious misnomer, as anyone knows 

 who has studied the habits of the genus Epitrix. The present species, 

 cucumeris, so far as we are able to judge, would not live in the larval 

 condition on any other plant than those of the botanical order Solana- 



