FN SECT 8 INFESTING THE GRAPE. 197 



CHAPTER CXIV. 



The California Grapevine Hopper. (Cal.) 



(Erythroneiira comes. — Say. ) 



Order, He.miptera : ) j^ •, ^. 

 Sub-order, Homoptera :) ^''^^"^1>'' ^ ^^''^'^^.e. 



[ Infesting the leaves of the grapevine, which they puncture 

 with their beaks and imbibe the sap, causing the leaves to turn 

 yellow prematurely; a yellowish-white vine hop])er marked 

 with orange-red.] 



The perfect insects (Fig. 182, Plate 8,) are yellowish-white, 

 with oblique confluent orange-red bands on the wing-cases, 

 and a short olilicpie line on the middle of the outer margin of 

 each ; on the thorax are usually three red stripes, the middle 

 one forked anteriorly and confluent with two red stripes on 

 the crown of the head ; length, about one line and a half. The 

 scutellum is large, triangular and marked with three orange 

 spots which form a triangle ; the two anterior spots are some- 

 times black. At the outer fore-angle of the wing-cases is a 

 black dot, and there is another black dot at the outer hind 

 angle ; the posterior tibiae are densely spined, and there is a 

 row of spines on the anterior tibia?. 



These insects hibernate in the perfect state around the vines, 

 etc., and come forth in the following Spring and feed upon the 

 new growth of vegetation. The females deposit their eggs 

 upon the leaves of the grapevine as soon as the latter are 

 expanded. The young vine-hoppers closely resemble the 

 adults in form, but are destitute of wings. They cast their 

 skins several times before arriving at maturity, and these 

 white cast off skins may frequently be found adhering to the 

 leaves or scattered upon the ground beneath them. I have 

 first observed the perfect insect in the month of July. 



These insects puncture the leaves of the vine and extract 

 the sap to such an extent as to cause the leaves to turn yellow 

 prematurely, preventing the canes from ri})ening, and when the 

 gra])es, picked ofl' of the invested vines, are used for shipping 

 to the Eastern States they are lial)le to mildew. 



Remedies. — Xos. :V2 and 88. (See Nos. 19, 20, 21 and 108.) 



