68 
SOME INSECTS INJURIOUS TO TRUCK CROPS. 
THE SADDLED CUCUMBER BEETLE. 
(Diabrotica connexa Lee.) 
What appears to be the first report of attack by the saddled cucum- 
ber beetle (Diabrotica connexa Lee.) was that made b}^Mr. C. S. Spooner, 
April 10, 1907, while engaged in truck crop insect investigations 
in this Bureau. It was found attacking cucurbit aceous plants at 
Corpus Christi, Tex. Mr. E. A. Schwarz, of this Bureau, however, 
states that he had met with it commonly in western Texas in earlier 
years, attacking cucurbits. 
This species (fig. 19) belongs to the same series as Diabrotica balteata 
Lee, but to a group in which the antennse have the third joint fully as 
long as the fourth and twice as long 
as the second. The elytra or wing- 
covers are dark ochraceous yellow 
with a purplish-brown transverse 
band at the base, another just for- 
ward of the middle, and with four 
roundish spots of the same color rep- 
resenting a third band. The first 
two bands are usually united on their 
outer edges, inclosing a more or less 
heart-shaped area of ochraceous yel- 
low color. The head is colored about 
like the bands and spots on the elytra. 
This insect is a little larger than D. 
balteata and measures nearly three- 
tenths of an inch (7 mm.) in length. 
It is recorded by Horn, a who describes the adult in detail, from 
" Texas and Mexico." Jacoby b figures the species and mentions 
Tuxtla in Mexico. 
Fig. 19.— The saddled cucumber beetle (Dia- 
brotica connexa) : Beetle, about 5 times natural 
size. (Original.) 
THE PAINTED CUCUMBER BEETLE. 
(Diabrotica picticornis Horn.) 
October 13, 1905, Mr. F. C. Pratt observed the painted cucumber 
beetle (Diabrotica picticornis Horn) at San Antonio, Tex., in great 
numbers in the blossoms of okra and on beets, associated with D. 
balteata. The species was received December 12, 1906, from Mr. 
F. B. Headley, from San Antonio, Tex., with the report that it was 
eating vetch and horse beans. It was associated with D. balteata and 
D. 12-punctata. Mr. C. S. Spooner observed the same species on 
squash and on cotton at San Antonio, Tex., in June, 1907. 
a Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, Vol. XX, p. 91, 1893. 
6 Biol. Centr.-Amer., Coleop., Phytophaga, Vol. VI, Pt. I, 1887, fig. 20, PI. XXXII. 
