128 
COLEOPTERA. 
lowisli; so that^it may still bear the name given to it in my 
Catalogue. It is only one sixteenth of an inch long, of a 
black color, with clay-yellow antennae and legs, except the 
hindmost thighs, which are brown. The upper side of the 
body is covered with punctures, which are arranged in rows 
on the wing-cases ; and there is a deep transverse furrow 
across the hinder part of the thorax. During the summer, 
these pernicious flea-beetles may be found, not only on cu¬ 
cumber-vines, but on various other plants having fleshy and 
succulent leaves, such as beans, beets, the tomato, and the 
potato. They injure all these plants, more or less, according 
to their numbers, by nibbling little holes in the leaves with 
their teeth; the functions of the leaves being thereby im¬ 
paired in proportion to the extent of surface and amount of 
substance destroyed. The edges of the bitten parts become 
brown and dry by exposure to the air, and assume a rusty 
appearance. Since the prevalence of the disease commonly 
called the potato-rot^ attention has been particularly directed 
to various insects that live upon the potato-plant; and, as 
these flea-beetles have been found upon it in great numbers, 
in some parts of the country, they have been charged with 
being the cause of the disease. The same charge has also 
been made against several other kinds of insects, some of 
which will be described in the course of this work. In my 
own opinion, the origin, extension, and continued reappear¬ 
ance of this wide-spread pestilence are not due to the depre¬ 
dations of insects of any kind. Mr. Phanuel Flanders, of 
Lowell, where the flea-beetles have appeared in unusual 
numbers, showed to me, in August, 1851, some potato-leaves 
that were completely riddled with holes by them, so that 
but little more than the ribs and veins remained un¬ 
touched. He thinks that their ravages may be prevented 
by watering the leaves with a solution of lime, a remedy 
long ago employed in England, with signal benefit, in pre¬ 
serving the turnip crop from the attacks of the turnip flea- 
beetle. 
