BEET AND SPINACH INSECTS 99 



tiire shoiikl be applied to the acre and the application should 

 be made as soon as possible after the caterpillars have hatched. 

 The spray should be applied with at least SO jjounds' pressure. 

 Recent experiments in Colorado and Kansas have shown that 

 paris green applied in this way will satisfactorily control the 

 webworm on beets and is much more effective than arsenate of 

 lead. In some cases in which the ground is too wet for the use 

 of a sprayer, paris green may be applied in the form of a dust 

 at the rate of 2 to 4 pounds in 100 pounds of air-slaked lime. 



References 



Koppen, Die Shadliehen Insekten Russlands, pp. 394-405. 1880. 

 Riley, Rept. U. S. Ent. for 1892, pp. 172-175. 

 Col. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bill. 98, pp. 2-12. 1905. 

 U. S. Bur. Ent. Bui. 109, pp. 57-70. 1912. 



The Hawaiian Beet Webworm 



Hymenia fascialis Cramer 



In the southern United States beet leaves are sometimes 

 skeletonized on the underside by a small, slender, pale green 

 caterpillar which has received the rather inappropriate com- 

 mon name given above. The insect ranges throughout the 

 southern states westward to California. It is also generally 

 distributed throughout the warmer parts cf the Old World. 

 Its habits and life history have been studied carefully in 

 Hawaii. In that climate, breeding is continuous throughout 

 the year. Its food plants include table beets, sugar-beets, 

 Swiss chard, mangels and Amarantus gangeticns, a Chinese pot- 

 herb sometimes known as spinach. Among weeds, it feeds on 

 purslane and numerous species belonging to Amaranthus and 

 Ch?enopodium. The caterpillars reach maturity in nine days 

 to two weeks and then enter the ground a short distance, where 

 they form firm, oblong earthen cocoons composed of silk and 



