324 MANUAL OF VEGETABLE-GARDEN INSECTS 



also been known to injure cranberries and grapes as well as 

 apple and pear grafts. The beetles feed on a wide variety of 

 weeds, including smartweed, pigweed, daisy, fleabane, ragweed, 



plantain, catnip, dock and 

 goldenrod. 



The beetle is slightly more 



than i inch in length, and bluish 



black in color, with the antennae 



having the two basal segments 



dark, the next three or four 



light and the remainder dark 



(Fig. 203). They are most 



abundant in midsummer. The 



immature stages have not been 



described and the number of 



broods occurring annually is not 



known. 



When attacking cabbage in the seed-bed, the injury is best 



prevented by screening the bed with cheesecloth as is often 



done for protection against the cabbage root-maggot (page 35). 



Fig. 203. — The smartweed flea- 

 beetle (X 11). 



The Striped Cabbage Flea-Beetle 



Phyllotreta vittata Fabricius 



The striped cabbage flea-beetle shows a preference for crucif- 

 erous plants, attacking cabbage, radish, turnip, horse-radish, 

 water-cress, stock and wall-flower. It is also recorded as injuri- 

 ous to tomato and strawberry. Its most important unculti- 

 vated food plant is the wild mustard, but it also feeds on 

 charlock, shepherd's purse and rocket. The insect ranges 

 throughout the United States and southern Canada east of the 

 Rocky Mountains. The beetles hibernate in sheltered places 

 and appear in the fields in the spring, in western New York 

 about the.middle of May. The adult is about -^^ inch in length, 



