THE MARGINED CANT IIARIS. 
137 
black spots on the head, and two black stripes on the thorax 
and on each of the wing-covers. The under side of the body, 
the legs, and the antennae are black, and covered with a 
grayish down. Its length is from five to six tenths of an 
inch. In this and the three following species the thorax is 
very much narrowed before, and the wing-covers are long 
and narrow, and cover the whole of the back. The striped 
Cantharis is comparatively rare in New England ; but in the 
Middle and Western States it often appears in great numbers, 
and does much mischief in potato-fields and gardens, eating 
up, not only the leaves of the potato, but those of many other 
vegetables. It is one of the insects to which the production 
of the potato-rot has been ascribed. The habits of this kind 
of Cantharis arc similar to those of the following species. 
There is a large blistering beetle which is very common on 
the virgin’s bower ( Clematis Virginiana'), a trailing plant, 
which grows wild in the fields, and is cultivated for covering 
, arbors. I have sometimes seen this* plant completely stripped 
of its leaves by these insects, during the month of August. 
They are very shy, and when disturbed fall immediately 
from the leaves, and attempt to conceal themselves among 
the grass. They most commonly resort to the low branches 
of the Clematis, or those that trail upon the ground, and 
more rarely attack the upper parts of the vine. They also 
cat the leaves of various kinds of Ranunculus or buttercups, 
and, in the Middle and Southern States, those of Clematis 
viorna and crispa. This beetle is the Cantharis 
marginata of Olivier, or margined Cantharis 
(Fig. 62). It measures six or seven tenths of 
an inch in length. Its head and thorax arc 
thickly covered with short gray down, and have 
a black spot on the upper side of each ; the 
wing-covers are black, with a very narrow gray 
edging ; and the under side of the body and the 
legs are also gray. 
The most destructive kind of Cantharis found in Massa- 
18 
Fig. 02. 
