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STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



their mischief-making tendencies been generally recorded. But I rather aim 

 to call to your attention and to place on record the characters and habits of 

 certain species either new to Michigan or whose noxious habits have not as yet 

 found space in our excellent reports. 



Gkape Vine Flea-Beetle — Haltica chalybea illeger. Family Chrysomelidce.. 



Order Coleoptera. 



This little coleopterous pest is no new enemy to the grape vine. Even Har- 

 ris, in his Injurious Insects, describes this little beetle. Nor has it just 

 commenced its depredations in our own State. Four years ago, our prince in 

 Michigan grape culture, whose knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm have 

 been so valuable to this society — need I say Mr. E. Bradfield? — sent me these 

 beetles, in the larva state, with a loud cry of alarm for his favorite fruit. 

 Since then I have seen the blighting ravages of this little pest in several vine- 

 yards about Lansing, and have heard of the same in various sections of the 

 State. No Michigan grape grower can afford to be ignorant of this beetle, 

 which, though small in size, is not small in its power for mischief. 



This beetle (Fig. 1, d) is, like all of the leaf -eating family — Chrysomelidce — 

 oblong, oval in form. It is, as the specific name indicates, blue in color. Its 

 length is about four m. m., or less than three-sixteenths of an inch. Like all 

 of its genus, its posterior legs are enlarged, fitting it for jumping, hence the 

 generic name Haltica. This jumping peculiarity is obvious if we attempt to 

 catch the little pests, for like the Dutchman's flea, when we put our finger on 

 them they are not there. All present are doubtless familiar with the like 

 habits of the striped, and cucumber flea-beetles, H. striolata and H. cuaimeris, 

 so common about radishes, and our various cucurbitaceous plants in summer. 



The 'grub or larva (Fig. 1, h) of 

 the grape vine flea-beetle is brown 

 above, but lighter beneath, with a 

 shining black head. It is six w.. m. } 

 or 0.35 of an inch long. The 

 thoracic legs are black, the anal 

 orange. Along the back are rows 

 of black spots, each giving rise to 

 a hair. 



The habits of these pests will be 

 more interesting to practical pomol- 

 ogists, and so I will proceed to de- 

 tail them. The beetles come forth 

 from the ground in mid-summer, 

 but do no special harm till they 

 come forth from their hibernation, 

 the following spring, when they 

 attack the opening buds, in the 

 month of May, and thus at the 

 same time blast the vines and the 

 hopes of the vineyardist. They 

 often at this stage do irreparable 

 damage. But not content with this, they pair and scatter their yellow egg clusters 

 (Fig. 1, c, egg magnified) about the leaves of the vines. From these eggs 

 come forth the brown grubs (Fig. 1, a), which often strip the vines of their 



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Fig. l.— Grape Vine Flea Beetle. 



a. Leaf attacked by grubs, b. Larva magnified, 

 c. Egg magnified, d. Beetle maginlied. 



