138 
COLEOPTERA. 
Fig. 63. 
chusetts is of a more slender form than the preceding, and 
measures only from five and a half to six tenths of an inch 
in length. Its antennae and feet arc hlack, and all the rest 
o 
of its body is ashen gray, being thickly covered with a very 
short down of that color. Hence it is called Cantharis cine- 
rca * 17 or the ash-colored Cantharis (Fig. 63). 
When the insect is rubbed, the ash-colored 
substance comes off, leaving the surface 
black. It begins to appear in gardens about 
the 20th of June, and is very fond of the 
leaves of the English bean, which it sometimes 
entirely destroys. It is also occasionally found 
in considerable numbers on potato-vines ; and in Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, it has repeatedly appeared in great profusion 
upon hedges of the honey-locust, which have been entirely 
stripped of foliage by these voracious insects. They are also 
found on the wild indigo-weed. In the night, and in rainy 
weather, they descend from the plants, and burrow in the 
ground, or under leaves and tufts of grass. Thither also 
they retire for shelter during the heat of the day, being most 
actively engaged in eating in the morning and evening. 
About the 1st of August they go into the ground and lay 
their eggs, and these are hatched in the course of one month. 
The larvae are slender, somewhat flattened grubs, of a yel- 
lowish color, banded with black, with a small reddish head, 
and six legs. These grabs are very active in their motions, 
and appear to live upon fine roots in the ground ; but I have 
not been able to keep them till they arrived at maturity, and 
therefore know nothing further of their history. 
About the middle of August, and during the rest of this 
and the following month, a jet-black Cantharis may be seen 
on potato-vines, and also on the blossoms and leaves of vari- 
* Lytla cinerea, Fnbricius. 
[ 17 A? this specific name was previously applied by Forster to the species men- 
tioned on the previous page as Cantharis or Lylta marginata, and lias priority over 
that name, I have changed the name of the present species to Lylta Fabricii. — 
Lec.] 
