BEET AND SPINACH INSECTS 



95 



early planting and by good care of the crop early in the season 

 so as to get the plants well established before the hoppers make 

 their appearance in the field. 



References 



U. S. Bur. Ent. Bull. 66, pp. 33-52. 1909. 

 U. S. Bur. Plant Ind. Bull. 181. 1910. 

 Utah Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 15.^>. 1917. 



The Larcer Sugar-Beet Leaf-Beetle 



Monoxia puncticollis Say 



In New Mexico, Colorado and Montana, sugar-beets are 

 sometimes attacked by the larvae and adults of this leaf-beetle, 

 but it has not yet been reported as an enemy of table beets. 

 Its wild food plants are sea blite, 

 Russian thistle and salt-bush. Both 

 larvae and adults feed on the leaves 

 but the greater part of the injury is 

 caused b\' the former. When dis- 

 turbed they fall readily to the 

 ground. The beetle occurs along 

 the Atlantic and Gulf coast and 

 westward to California, and north- 

 ward through Colorado, Utah and 

 Montana. It is ^ to ^ inch in 

 length, and varies considerably in 

 c )lor, from uniform dull yellowish 



brow^n to nearly black ; in some forms each wing-cover is 

 marked with one or two more or less distinct dark stripes 

 (Fig. 63). The insect hibernates in the beetle stage, appear- 

 ing on its food plants early in the spring. . The female de- 

 posits her eggs, a little less than -^ inch in length, in irregular 

 clusters of two or three to forty or fifty on the leaves. These 



Fig. 63. — The larger sugar- 

 beet leaf -bee tie (X 4^). 



