STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
433 
TENTH REPORT 
ON THE 
NOXIOUS AND OTHER INSECTS 
OF THE I ( 
teTATE OF NEW YORK. 
Bt ASA FITCH, M. D., 
ENTOMOLOGIST OF THE NEW YORK STATE AGRICULTUItAL SOCIETY. 
[Copyright scoured to tho Author.] 
INSECTS INFESTING GARDENS. 
14. Cucumber-beetle, Galleruca (Diabrotica) Americana, Grnelin. (Coleop- 
tera. Gallerucidte.) 
Boring in tho roots of the cucumber, melon and squash, and causing tho vines to wilt and 
(lie; small, slondor, white worms, black at eaohcnd; passing their pupa state underground 
and producing oblong, bright, lemon-yellow beetles, a quarter of an inch long or somewhat 
less, with blaok heads and three blaok stripes on their wing covers, which are common in the 
garden, gnawing the stalks, loaves and flowers of tho same plants. 
Decidedly the worst insect in our gardens is this yellow striped Cucum- 
ber-bcetle, or “Cucumber-bug,” as it is commonly but less correetl}' called. 
Hitherto this insect has been known to us only in its perfect state, gnaw¬ 
ing the stalks and eating the leaves of the cucumber vines; and it is 
hereby so pernicious that it has all along been ranked as one of the great¬ 
est pests in the gardens of this country. Notv that I have discovered 
what the larva of this beetle is, and thus find that it is more destructive 
and more difficult to contend against in this its young and growing state 
than it is afterwards when it has attained maturity, this insect assumes an 
importance it has not before been supposed to possess, and is left without 
a compeer in the garden in the depredations it commits and the vexatious 
losses which it occasions. 
Early in the season, upon our first planting of cucumbers, melons and 
squashes, it frequently happens that particular hills of one and another of 
these seeds do not sprout so as to make their appearance above the ground, 
and wo conclude the seed is bad, and very likely the next time we see tlio 
merchant from whom we purchased it, we berate him for imposing a worth¬ 
less article upon us. It is an undoubted fact that in hundreds of instances 
[Ag. Trans. j - 28 
