File:Economic entomology for the farmer and fruit-grower - and for use as a text-book in agricultural schools and colleges (1906) (14591599338).jpg

Identifier: economicentomo00smit (find matches)
Title: Economic entomology for the farmer and fruit-grower : and for use as a text-book in agricultural schools and colleges
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Smith, John Bernhard, 1858-1912
Subjects: Insect pests
Publisher: Philadelphia London : J.B. Lippincott company
Contributing Library: University of British Columbia Library
Digitizing Sponsor: University of British Columbia Library

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t; 6, larva; c, pupa; e, head, with antenna; /, same ofT. ferrugineum. Perhaps the most interesting, and economically the most im-portant of this series, are the blister-beetles, or Meloidce.The name blister-beetles is from a peculiar property possessedby them of raising blisters on the human skin. This is due to asubstance called cantharidin, found in the juices of all thespecies to a greater or less extent. The species generally usedin medicine comes from Spain, hence the insects are also knownas Spanish flies. The beetles are rather soft-bodied, withbroad heads, the antennae often knotted in the males, the thoraxnarrow and cylindrical, the wing-covers extending well down thesides. Some of the species are brightly colored and banded,occasionally metallic bronze or coppery, and all of them are leaf-feeders. Among the common eastern species several attackpotatoes, and of these a yellow and black-striped form, Epicautavittata, is known as the old-fashioned potato-bug. Asters 15 Fig 227
Text Appearing After Image:
Meloidae, or blister-beetles 227, Spanish Hy, Lytta vesicatnria. Fig. 228,Fig. 229, hfiicauta vittata: a, second larva; c, d, coarctata larva, from back and sida and d, true pupa of same, from side and front. Fig. 230, a, grasshopper egg-pod ■ ba few eggs from same ; r, triungulin ; d, carabidoid iarva ; e, scarabidoid larva. Fig231 adult Epjcauta viltata. Fig. 232, Epicauta cinerea. Fig. 233, a, Macrobasis unicolor; b, Epicaulapennsylvanica.226 THE INSECT WORLD. 227 and other flowers are injured by a black species with gray-edgedelytra, Epicanta ducrea, and among field-crops beets are, afterpotatoes, the chief sufferers. The beetles appear quite suddenlyin large numbers, and some species disappear almost as quickly,while others linger several days. A uniformly black form,Epicanta peimsylvanica, is often fountl in considerable numberson the flowers of the golden-rod in August and September, whilea uniformly gray species, J/ac?odas/s iinicolo)% is common on thefalse indigo. The life

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