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Click for larger image
Drawing: Mary Benson from the USDA Yearbook of Agriculture 1952.
Bacterial wilt, which is often caused by cucumber
beetles.
Photo: University of Nebraska
Cooperative Extension.
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Both adults and larvae of the spotted cucumber beetle have chewing
mouthparts. Because beetles congregate in large numbers on newly
emerging cucumber, melon, pumpkin, and squash plants, they may
do severe feeding damage in a very short time - almost overnight.
A bacterium may survive the winter in the gut of the overwintering
beetles.
In the spring the beetles inoculate the pathogen into the plant
tissues as they feed and cause bacterial wilt of the infected
plant. The insect is also a vector of cucumber mosaic disease.
The summer generation of larvae feed on the plant parts below
the soil surface whereas the adult beetles feed on the stems,
leaves, and fruit of cucurbits.
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