GRAPE INSECTS 



403 



The Grape-vine Flea-beetle 

 Haltica chalybea Illiger 



Just as the grape buds are ready to burst in the spring they 

 are often attacked ])y a small, dark, glossy, greenish-])lue or 

 steel-blue beetle a little less than a fifth of an inch in length 

 that eats out the contents and thus destroys the future 

 cane with its load of 

 fruit (Fig. 347). 

 During the past 

 forty years this flea- 

 ])eetle has caused 

 serious injury and 

 loss in vineyards in 

 widely separated 

 parts of the country. 

 Its attacks, however, 

 are usually confined 

 to hmited areas and 

 are not, as a rule, 

 sustained in one lo- 

 cahty for a series of 

 years. It is a native 

 American insect and 

 occurs from Kansas 

 to Massachusetts 

 and southward to 

 Florida and New 

 Mexico. The vari- 

 ous species of wild 

 grapes and the Vir- 

 ginia creeper were 

 probably its original t. o.^ r^, 



r ^ 1 . ^^^' 347. — The grape-vine flea-beetle feeding on 



lOOa-plants. a young grape shoot. Enlarged, 



