19 



pot;ito-beetle. its localities, its naue. 

 this enemy. At the Soutli, where they have had long and sore experience 

 with the twin sister of our insect, the only remedy (bund to be effectual is 

 searching out and destroying the worms. This " worming" of the tobacco 

 fields, as it is termed, is an indispensable measure, forming a regular part 

 of the tobacco culture. After the leaves are grown to a sufficient size for 

 the worm to begin to feed upon them, not a day is suffered to pass without 

 examining them. The leaves are so large and so very tender and brittle, 

 except for a short period at mid-day, when they become pliant from being 

 somewhat wilted by the heat of tiie sun, that the utmost care is requisite 

 in passing among them to avoid breaking and tearing them. Notwith- 

 standing the closest scrutiny some of the worms will be overlooked, at 

 each search which is made. Moreover, new moths are coming out and 

 depositing their eggs day after day, whereby a succession of worms are 

 appearing. Thus it becomes necessary to repeat this examination daily, 

 searching out and destroying every worm while it is yet young and small. 

 AVheri these ugly looking worms first began to be noticed upon the toma- 

 toes in our gardens, some sensitive persons were much alarmed with fears 

 that they were poisonous and would render the fruit deleterious if they 

 happened to touch or crawl over it. But such fears are wholly groundless. 

 Tlie sharp, thorn-like tail of this worm, however, if it chances to penetrate 

 the skin, inflicts a painful wound. This is the only thing to be guarded 

 against. 



10. Ten-Lined Potato-beetle, DorypJiora I04ineata, Say. (Coleoptera. Chry- 

 scmelidae.) Plate 4, figure 6. 



Eating tho leaves of tho potato in immense numbers through the wholo summer ; a thioli, 

 oval beetle nearly half an inch long, and of a pale yellow color with five black stripes on caoh 

 wing cover, accompanied by its thick-bodied, worm-like larva of a pale yellow color with rows 

 of black dots, and six legs upon its breast and a pro-leg at the poiated end of its body. 



In connection with the foregoing potato-worm, some account may here 

 be given of a new enemy which, within the past two or three years, has 

 fallen upon the potato-vines in numerous places all over the Northwestern 

 States, stripping them of every vestige of their foliage and eating the stalks 

 also, and hereby arresting tlie formation and growth of the tubers. Speci- 

 mens of this insect are being frequently sent me for information respecting 

 it, whereby I am able to present a description of it in its different stages 

 of life and several important facts respecting it. Fortunately for us, it is 

 not an inhabitant of our State, being found only in the valley of the Mis- 

 sissippi at a distance from our borders. 



This insect was first discovered as being common on the Upper Missouri 

 by Mr. Say, when accompanying Long's Exploring Expediton to the Rocky 

 Mountains. He met with it upon the Arkansas river also. In 1823, he 

 published a description of it (Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, 

 vol. iii., p. 453), naming it from the number of the stripes upon its wing- 

 covers, Doryphora lO-Zujeateor tlie Ten-lined Doryphora — this genus having 

 been separated from the old genus Chrysomela, by Illiger, to include a 

 number of South American species which have the middle portion of the 



