174 MANUAL OF VEGETABLE-GARDEN INSECTS 



over i inch in length and reddish brown in color. The parent 

 beetle (Fig. 100) is | inch in length, with the head and prothorax 

 black, the legs brownish and the wing-covers reddish brown. 

 The life history of the species has not been fully worked out. 



Injury may be avoided by not planting tomatoes on land that 

 was in sod or corn the previous year. 



The Erinose of the Tomato 



Eriophyes cladophthirus Nalepa ^ 



In Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, tomatoes are some- 

 times infested by a minute mite which attacks the growing tips 

 and the blossom buds. The feeding of the mites causes an 

 irritation of the tissue, inducing the plant to send out a dense 

 growth of white hairs, giving it the appearance of being covered 

 with a white mold. It is under the protection of this dense 

 growth of plant-hairs that the mites live, lay their eggs and 

 feed. Growth is stopped and the buds do not set fruit. The 

 life history and habits of this mite have not been carefully 

 studied. The adult is elongate, vermiform and nearly color- 

 less. It is provided with two pairs of legs and the abdomen is 

 transversely striate and apparently divided into about seventy 

 narrow rings. The female mite is about -^hs inch in length and 

 the male about ■^^. 



The erinose of the tomato may be controlled by spraying 

 the plants with the soda sulfur spray commonly used against 

 mites on citrus. The formula for this mixture is : 



1 The identity of this mite is somewhat uncertain. Rolfs (Fla. 

 Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 47, p. 143, 1898) referred the species to Phytoptus 

 calcladophora Nalepa, stating that the mite occurs in southern Europe. 

 We have been unable to find any such species described by Nalepa. 

 Apparently the P. calcladophora used by Rolfs is a misprint for Phytop- 

 tus (Eriophyes) cladophthirus Nalepa. The latter was described from 

 bittersweet {Solanum Dulcamara) in France, on which it produced 

 erinea. Kirchner states that it produces a similar condition on tomato 

 in Europe. 



