798 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
POTATO-BEETLE. ITS EGOS AND LARVA DESCRIBED. 
numbers as to be injurious,” &c. He regards the fact of Mr. Murphy's 
finding the 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 
sufficient 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 
bard 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 chiils 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 larvae, we received first from John 
S. Bowen, Elkhorn city 7 , Nebraska, in May 1863. Similar remittances have 
since 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 a leaf, but also devouring the stalks. 
Killing them seems to do no good, they breed so rapidly; and as they fly 
through the air, they would soon be re-established were they all extermina¬ 
ted from afield. It is now August 1st, and few if any tubers are yet set 
upon my potatoes, though the planting was very early.” And from New 
Sharon we are 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 alive, whilst the larvae 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 long as they are 
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 upon the 
leaves on which ^he 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 
