HOP FLEA. 131 



but bright rust-colour at the base of the shanks, and the 

 shanks on the second and hind pairs of legs are short, acute, 

 toothed below the middle, whence the common name of 

 "tooth-legged " and the scientific synonym of dcntipes. This 

 flea-beetle infests Hop-grounds and Turnip-fields, and is also 

 to be found in hedges, Nettles, and Grass.— (' Farm Insects.') 



It does not appear certain, however, that it is the only kind 

 of flea-beetle that infests our Hop-grounds, and the following 

 observations on the habits of the ''Hop Fleas" are given 

 with the note that, although certainly the species described 

 above by Curtis as Haltica concinna infests Hops, yet it is 

 not a kind especially confined to the Hop : — 



" These flea-beetles hybernate in the perfect state in the 

 ground close to the Hop-hills, or in the hollow dead bines left 

 on the stocks, or in the pieces lying on the ground near them. 

 They emergein the early spring, and attack the shoots of the 

 Hop-plant, piercing them as soon as they appear. 



" If the weather is cold, and the shoots unable to grow 

 away rapidly, the Flea occasionally causes serious injuries, 

 and makes them stunted. They are especially active in dry 

 seasons and when the land is rough. In wet seasons and in 

 growing seasons, when the shoots go quickly up the poles, 

 they do not cause much harm in the early stages of the plant- 

 growth. But later on in the summer, after a very dry season 

 which has been favourable to their increase, they get into the 

 cones and deposit their eggs. From these eggs the larva? — 

 little white maggots with six pectoral feet— are hatched in 

 about ten days; they immediately begin to burrow in, and 

 feed _ on the stalks or ' strigs,' causing their decay, and 

 making the bracts of the cones lose colour and become 

 disintegrated. 



" During the spring and earlier part of summer the eggs 

 are laid in the bine, or under the skin of the leaves."— (C. W.) 



Prevention and Eemedies.— " To check the Fleas, planters 

 dust lime or soot over and around the Hop-hills when the 

 shoots are low, but there is no remedy adopted against their 

 onslaughts after the bines have been tied to the poles. 



" One means of preventing the spread of these beetles is to 

 have all the pieces of old bines carefully removed from the 

 Hop-garden after Hop-picking and all the cuttings after the 

 hills have been 'dressed,' and to move and pulverise the 

 ground as early as possible in the spring. The Flea is very 

 mjurious to the bine in early spring, particularly in dry 

 weather, and where the land is rough and badly cultivated."— 

 (C. W.) ^ ^ 



The following remedies have been suggested, namely, to 



K 2 



