STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
437 
CUCUMBER.BEETLE. THE BEETLE DESCRIBED. 
When this insect throws off its pupa skin and first appears in its perfect 
form, it is of a white color, the thorax only having a tinge of yellow; the 
three black stripes upon its wing covers however are then distinct and perfect 
in every respect. It is very soft and flaccid, and remains quiescent in its cell 
without any motion or sign of life, I think for several days, to allow the 
superabundant juices of its body to evaporate aud its several parts to ac¬ 
quire sufficient firmness and strength to permit their active exercise. At 
length, sudden as though it had been touched with a shock of electricity, it 
awakes into full life and vigor, and with its feet and jaws it briskly attacks 
the walls of its prison, breaking au opening through them, and scrambles up¬ 
ward out of the loose surface earth of the garden and runs fleetly away, joy¬ 
ously exulting in its newly acquired life and liberty. One of these beetles 
which I confined in a vial upon its first coming out of its pupa cell lived with¬ 
out food until the fifth day after, vigorously gnawing the cork stopper of 
the vial in an effort to open a passage out for itself, and making therefrom a 
large quantity of chips like saw dust. During all this time its wing covers re¬ 
mained pure white, which leads me to think that it is only after the beetle 
has been feeding that its fluids obtain the coloring matter which gives it the 
bright yellow dress in which we are accustomed to see it clad. 
The Cucumber beetle is glossy and shining, of a bright pale lemon-yellow 
color, varied with black. It is rather more than twice as long as wide. The 
females arc larger than the males, measuring nearly or quite a quarter of an 
inch in length while the males are scarcely two-tenths of an inch. The head is 
narrower than the thorax, into which it is sunk to the eyes. It is of a coal- 
black color, including, the mouth and palpi or feelers. On the middle of the 
forehead, is a deep round impression. The face is clothed with a minute beard, 
the hairs inclining downward. The ayes, occupying the sides of the head, are 
large, protuberant, and roundish oval. The antennae arc two-thirds the length 
of the body, slender, thread-like, minutely bearded, eleven-jointed, black with 
the three first joints yellowish white and somewhat hyaline. The first joint 
is longest, nearly thrice as long as thick, thicker towards its apex, where is a 
large black spot on the upper side and another one opposite ou the under side. 
The second joint is smallest, egg-shaped with the larger end outward, and has 
also a black spot on its upper and another on its under side. The third joint 
is twice as long as the second but similar to it in thickness and is slightly 
narrowed towards its base. The remaining joints are more thick and succes¬ 
sively become a very little shorter as they appoach the apex, each joint being 
slightly narrowed towards its base. The thorax is less broad than the wing 
covers, more wide than long and nearly square in its outline, with its forward 
corners rounded and each of its hind ones forming a right angle. On its up¬ 
per side slightly hack of the centre aretwodilated impressions or little hollows, 
placed side by side and sometimes more or loss confluent with each other. 
Ihe seutcl is small, black, smooth and shining. The wing covers when fully 
closed are oblong-oval in their outline, being slightly convex on the sides and 
cut off transversely at the forward end. Their surface is thinly bearded over 
'Mill minute short erect hairs, and is traversed lengthwise by elevated smooth 
'ihs and intervening furrows. The ribs are nine in number on each wing cover, 
the first one from the suture being the most slender and the second one broad- 
