138 



NOTE ON ATTACKS OF PHYLLOTBETA 

 VITTULA ON SPRING CORN. 



Phyllolreta vitlula has recently been recorded by several continental 

 writers as a serious pest of spring corn. It has also been recorded by 

 Lind Rostrup and Ravn ^ as a serious pest of winter barley in Denmark. 

 The following extract from Baranov's account of this pest in the Govern- 

 ment of Moscow is taken from the Review of Applied Entomology, 

 Series A, Vol. i, page 214. "This beetle becomes yearly more numerous 

 and the damage done by it to the summer-sown crops is increasing. 

 The author never found it or noticed any damage done by it on the 

 winter-sown crops. It winters in the province of Moscow in the imago 

 stage among the roots of summer stubble and of Triticum repens. 

 It emerges from the earth with the return of warm weather (the middle 

 of May in 1912) and immediately attacks the sprouting grain. It does 

 the most injury at the time of pairing, and at the beginning of June 

 its injurious activity decreases. It feeds on the epidermis and paren- 

 chyma of the leaves, forming channels in them parallel with the veins. 

 If the number of channels is not great the leaves may recover. The 

 author did not succeed in finding e^s of this insect. The harm done 

 to the plants by the larvae was considerably greater than that done 

 by the adults, and the author noticed that the former sometimes pass 

 over to another plant. The plants attacked by the larvae generally 

 die or are greatly retarded in their development. After the 15th June 

 the insects decreased in numbers and by the beginning of July there 

 remained only single individuals, but they reappeared on the 15th August 

 in great numbers." 



On April 27th, 1914, the writer received from Mr E. S. Beaven of 

 Warminster, Wilts, specimens of seedhng barley plants i]i which long 

 strips were eaten between the veins of the leaves, very similar to the 

 damage described above. With these plants were sent specimens of 

 Phyllotrela vittula which were said to be present in large numbers and 

 eating holes in the young barley plants soon after they come above the 

 ground. The attack was not so severe as that described by Baranov. 



1 Rvv. App. Ent., Ser. A. Vol. iii, p. 698. 



