81 



roTATO-BEBTLE. ITS BOaS AND LARVA DESCniBED. 



•numbers as to be injurious," &c. He regards the fact of Mr. Murphy's 

 finding tiie beetles under ground in the spring, as full proof that this insect 

 always goes under ground to pass its pupa state; overlooking the additional 

 fact that Mr. M. found these beetles lying dormant and apparently dead, 

 which indicates that no warmth had at that time penetrated the earth 

 eufficient to change them from their pupa to their perfect state. Mr. M's. 

 recital of his observations would seem to make it plain that it is in their 

 perfect, not in their pupa state that they hibernate. He says the beetles 

 were immensely numerous; but when the cold weather set in they disap- 

 peared. Early the next spring he again found them away down in the 

 hard yellow clay, apparently dead but immediately reviving when exposed 

 to the sun. And finally, May 22d, they had again made their appearance 

 abroad in large numbers. Everything thus appears to show that these 

 beetles remain abroad in full force until a frosty night cuts off their food 

 and chills them, whereupon they hasten into any crack they can find in the 

 hard clay soil, or under any log or stone lying on the surface. They there 

 become dormant and thus repose through the winter, and with the warmth 

 of returning spring revive and issue from their retreats. 



Specimens of this beetle, its eggs and larvea, we received first from John 

 S.Bowen, Elkhorn city, Nebraska, in May, 1863. Similar remittances have 

 Bincc come to hand from different parts of Iowa. A correspondent at Web- 

 ster City writes that these insects are " very voracious feeders, not only 

 denuding the vines of every vestige of leaf, but also devouring the stalks. 

 Killing them seems to do no good, they breed so rapidly; and as they fly 

 through the air, tiiey would soon be reestablished were they all extermina- 

 ted from a field. It is now August 1st, and few if any tubers are yet set 

 upon by my potatoes, though the planting was very early." And from New 

 Sharon we arc told that some have been discouraged from planting pota- 

 toes, the ravages of this potato-bug have been so great. 



The beetles though sent from such a great distance have in every 

 instance reached me a ive, whilst the larvas accompanying them have 

 been nearly or quite dead, except in two or three instances. The eggs 

 also uniformly hatch and the young from them perish before they come to 

 hand. Kept in confinement, the beetles usually live so Jong as they aro 

 supplied with food. I have thus kept an individual captured in May, 

 until the frosts of autumn destroyed my supply of potato and tomato 

 leaves. And beetles newly born, if gradually exposed to the cold, will 

 undoubtedly become torpid and dormant, and lying in this state through 

 the winter will revive and return to activity with the return of warm 

 weather. 



The female in confinement drops her eggs in little clusters upoi> the 

 leaves on which she has been feeding. The eggs are bright yellow, 

 smooth and glossy, 0,06 long and 0,035 broad, of an oval form with rounded 

 ends. 



The Larva, when full grown is over a half inch in length and half as 

 thick, being thickest back of the middle and tapering to a point at its tip. 

 It is a thick plump grub, strongly arched above, and when viewed on one 



