2 BULLETIX 843, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 
so far as is known, are practically confined to beans, and no variety 
seems to be exempt from injurious attack. This insect has been ob- 
served feeding on various forms of the kidney bean (Phaseolus vul- 
garis et al.), including string, pole, navy, and tepary or Mexican, 
and on the lima bean (Ph. lunatus). Of these string beans are 
favorites. On one occasion the soy bean (Soja hispida) was at- 
tacked. The beetles, unlike those of the bean leaf -beetle (Cerotoma 
trifurcata Forst.), show no tendency to injure very young plants and 
the larvae work on the lower surface of the leaves, skeletonizing large, 
irregular areas without cutting the epidermis or upper skin. (Pi. 
n, mo 
It is fortunate that its field of operations is limited, both as re- 
gards the crop plants affected and the territory over which it ranges. 
It has been estimated that it does an annual damage in New Mexico 
varying from 5 to 100 per cent of the crop, the average loss being 
conservatively placed at 10 per cent. 
This species is remarkable in that it is one of two species of lady- 
birds occurring in the United States 1 which feed exclusively on 
vegetation, the other forms of the ladybird family being predacious 
and subsisting largely on plant-lice, or aphids, and the eggs of 
insects. 
SYNONYMY. 
The bean ladybird was described by Mulsant in 1850 (1, p. 815) 2 
under the name by which it is known in economic literature, Epi- 
lachna- corrupt a. In the original description in which this name 
appears, printed under No. 90, E. varivestis is also described as No. 
91, jet Crotch (3, p. 62), followed by Gorham (8, p. 212), recognized 
the latter as the proper name for the species, and relegated coumpta 
to synonymy, in which case the strict law of priority has not been 
followed. This species has evidently been described under at least 
a half dozen names, but as there is no means of deciding positively 
the exact term to apply to the species under consideration. Epilachna 
corrupta is here used to avoid further confusion, although E. varipes 
Muls. was described first and is acknowledged by Crotch and 
Gorham to be the same species. The name used by Bland (2), E. 
maculiventris, described in 1861 from the Rocky Mountain region of 
Colorado, undoubtedly applies to this species and naturally falls 
into synonymy. 
DESCRIPTION. 
THE ADULT. 
The adult (fig. 1, b) is a robust beetle, oval in outline, and about 
one-fourth of an inch in length b}^ about one-fifth of an inch in 
The other is known as the squash ladybird (Epilachna borealis Fab.). 
Reference is made by figures in parentheses to " Literature cited,'' p. 20. 
