23 
it enters and devours the contents. After a time it casts its skin and 
assumes what is termed the "caraboid" or second larval stage {d^ e)\ 
and with another molt it resembles a white grub, the " scarabaeoid " 
larval stage (/). When a larva has finished its quota of locusts' eggs 
it undergoes a fourth molt and forms within its own skin what is 
known as the coarctate larval stag-e ((7), and in this condition usually 
passes the winter. In the spring another larval molt takes place, and 
with the last shedding of its skin the insect enters upon the true pupal 
stage, and in due time transforms to a beetle.^* The pupa of a related 
species is illustrated in figure 16. 
This species also does injury to beans, peas, tomato, turnip, radish, 
melons, corn, clover, and alfalfa. It was the cause of a serious out- 
break in Michigan in the latter part of June and the first part of July, 
1900. Corn plants about six inches high and clover sufi^ered severely, 
the reason being that the potatoes grown there, being all late varieties, 
had not come up, and more palatable food was not available. 
The writer has seen hordes of this species traveling in much the 
same manner as army worms, and feeding with such voracity that 
scarcely a beetle flew when plants on which they were congregated 
were approached. When a "flock" starts to feed on one form of 
food plant it continues on this until all plants 
in sight have been devoured, when the beetles 
have recourse to other plants that are palatable 
to them. This trait has also been observed in 
other species, especially in the margined blister 
beetle. 
THE THREE-LINED BLISTER BEETLE. 
{Epicauta lemniscata Fab.) 
This blister beetle very closely resembles the 
preceding; in fact, the two are frequently con- 
founded, and injuries inflicted by one species 
are apt to be attributed to the other. The 
form under consideration (fig. 14) is a little 
more slender than the striped blister beetle, 
has three stripes on each wing-cover instead of two, and is a little 
longer. It is very abundant southward, and, although perhaps pri- 
marily a potato pest like most of our noxious blister beetles, is also 
extremely fond of beets. During different years we have received 
complaints of this species and of extensive damage in Florida, South 
Carolina, and Texas to cabbage, potato, squash, and to beet tops, 
as also to alfalfa. In the vicinity of Horton, Tex., in 1896, the 
last-mentioned crop was said to be a failure, owing to the depreda- 
« Particulars in regard to these peculiar transformations are given in articles by 
C. V. Riley, Am. Nat, Vol. XII, p. 286; Vol. XVII, p. 790. 
Fig. 14. — Epicauta lemniacata — 
enlarged (original, Division 
of Entomology) . 
