438 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
CUCOMBKH-BEETI.E. ITS SCIENTIFIC NAMES. 
est. The fifth to the eighth ones are run together at their anterior ends, form¬ 
ing an elevated smooth shining spot upon the shoulder. In each furrow is a 
row of close shallow punctures. The wing covers are also ornamented with 
three parallel hlack stripes. The middle one of these stripes is placed upon 
the suture, occupying all the space inside the second rib. It is narrowed pos¬ 
teriorly to an acute point which ends before it quite attains the tip of the 
wing covers. The lateral stripes occupy the fifth, six and seventh ribs and 
the intervening furrows, commencing upon the shoulder and terminating in 
an abruptly rounded end on the posterior declivity of the wing covers, distant 
from the margin. The wings are large, transparent and smoky brown. The 
underside is black and shining, with the fore-breast or throat light yellow. The 
surface is minutely punctured and covered with a dense fine grey beard. The 
leys are yellowish-white and translucent, with a close inclined beard. The 
knees are black, and also the anterior shanks, the tips of the middle and 
hind shanks and the feet. The feet are four-jointed, the first joint being longest, 
about twice as long as thick, and a third longer on the hind feet. The second 
joint is short, but little longer than thick. The third joint is shortest and 
very deeply cleft or two-lobed. The last joint is inserted bet-ween the lobes 
of the preceding joint, and is long, slender and curved, thicker towards its 
tip where it is furnished with a pair of sharp claws which are forked or double. 
This beetle was described first in the year 1181, by Fabricius, in his 
Species of Insects, vol. i, p. 148, under the name Cistela melanocephala or 
the Black-headed Cistela. Eleven years afterwards be changed its place 
to the genus Crioceris, in which there was already a species bearing the 
same name, wherefore he was under the necessity of re-naming our insect, 
and accordingly called it the viltata or Striped Crioceris. Four years pre¬ 
vious to this, however, Gmelin, in his edition of the System of Nature, vol. 
iv, p. 1115, had for a similar reason entered this same insect under the 
name Cnjptocephalus Americanus. Authors appear to have overlooked this 
name of Gmelin, whereby our insect has come to be universally known 
under the name given it by Fabricius. But as the name bestowed by 
Gmelin has the unquestioned priority, 1 do not perceive any valid ground 
on which it can be set aside. This insect being so prominent as a depre¬ 
dator in our gardens here in America, whilst it is unknown in those of the 
old world, renders Gmelin’s name quite appropriate; although on several 
accounts the Fabrician name would be the preferable one if the established 
rules of nomenclature allowed us any liberty of choice in the premises. 
Olivier, more correctly than his contemporaries, determined the true place 
of this insect to be in the genus Galleruca, where it has since remained. Chev- 
rolat, however, in Dejean’s Catalogue, has proposed a dismemberment of 
this genus, giving the name Diabrotica to the section in which our Cucum¬ 
ber-beetle falls. Although the divisions which he proposes have never yet 
been characterized that 1 am aware, they may very probably be eventually 
adopted, at least as subgenera. 
These Cucumber beetles come forth from their winter retreats and begin 
to appear abroad here in the State of New York as early as the commence¬ 
ment of May r , and correspondents at the South have sent me specimens 
which were there captured a month earlier than this. As there are no 
