25 
Fig. 19. — Epicauta pennsylva- 
mca— enlarged (original, Di- 
vision of Entomology). 
natural black of the body shows, giving it the appearance of a gray 
insect finely dotted with black. It is more or less abundant from 
Texas and New Mexico northward to South Dakota, and in California 
and Oregon. It has been known as a beet pest sincp 1S75/^ and was 
reported very generally upon sugar beet, 
potato, and clover in South Dakota in 1897.^ 
In August, 1902, Mr. J. L. Y/ebb observed 
numbers eating leaves of beet at Elmore, 
S. Dak. 
THE BliACK BLISTER BEETLE. 
(Epicauta pennsylvanica De G.) 
The black blister beetle (fig. 19) is a familiar 
object to nearly everyone from its occurrence 
on golden-rod, aster, and related wild plants, 
while the farmer is quite too well acquainted 
with it as an unwelcome visitor to his potato 
patch and to various other vegetables. Flo- 
rists know it under the name of "aster bug," 
from the severe injuries which it does to asters and which they are 
unable entirely to prevent. It is uniformly black, without polish, and 
its length varies from a little more than a quarter to half an inch. It 
is well distributed in the region east of the 
Rocky Mountains, and does most injury 
between the Atlantic States and Texas. Its 
time of appearance is more or less coinci- 
dent with the blossoming of the golden-rod, 
from June to October according to locality, 
and as a rule it appears later than other 
species. It is one of the worst insect ene- 
mies of potato, beet, and aster, and is also 
destructive to carrots, beans, cabbage, corn, 
mustard, clematis, zinnia, and other flower- 
ing plants. 
THE ASH-GRAY BLISTER BEETLE. 
( Macrobasis unicolor Kby . ) 
This is one of our commonest Eastern 
species (fig. 20), and although most destructive to beans, peas, and 
other leguminous plants, is also a serious enemy of beets, potato, 
and tomato, and attacks besides sweet potato and some flowering 
plants.^ 
« Packard, U. S. Geol. Surv. for 1875, p. 731. 
&D. A. Saunders, Biil. 57, So. Dak. Agl. Ex. Sta., p. 52. 
c Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agr. for 1898, pp. 249-250. 
Fig. 20. — Macrobasis unicolor: fe- 
male beetle at right, twice nat- 
ural size; male antenna at left, 
greatly enlarged (author's illus- 
tration, Division of Entomology). 
