1899] HOP FLEA BEETLE. 73- 



hollow, dead bines and other refuse ; it is therefore most important 

 that all rubbish should be removed and destroyed." — (W. W. F.) 



The damage caused by little white maggots feeding in the Hop-cones 

 until, as above described, they lose colour and become disintegrated is 

 at times a subject of serious complaint. 



In September, 1882, Mr. Goodwin, writing from Cranch, near 

 Maidstone, mentioned, with regard to this small white maggot, that 

 it pierced into, or rather was bred in, the strig or stalk of the cone or 

 flower, where it eats its way up the inside of the stalk, thus causing 

 the Hops to wither and turn brown. The maggots varied in number 

 in one "strig," but one or two were the average. In the earlier part 

 of September these maggots were very numerous ; but at the date of 

 writing (September 27th) they had disappeared, and it was mentioned 

 that " they drop out into the earth after eating the Hops." 



Specimens were also forwarded to me by Mr. E. Cooke, from 

 Detling, near Maidstone, of Hops similarly attacked, with the mention 

 that the altered colour was from the attack of a maggot which 

 channelled out a home for itself in the stem which forms the centre 

 of the cone. 



Examples of the infested Hop-cones were repeatedly sent me in 

 1882, and have been occasionally forwarded since ; but I have never 

 had the opportunity of technically identifying the larva so as to make 

 quite sure that the Psylliodes attemwta was the cause of the mischief. 

 At that time it was not known where this Hop Flea Beetle propagated, 

 nor, so far as I am aware, were descriptions of the maggot attainable. 

 But it seemed to me most likely (see my Annual Eeport for 1882, p. 71) 

 that, if we could rear the maggots to maturity, they would prove to 

 be those of this P. attenuata. Since then Canon Fowler's work on 

 British beetles (quoted ante, p. 72) has added very greatly to our stores 

 of useful information, and his notes on the egg-laying of the Hop Flea 

 Beetle in the cones appear to me to leave no reasonable doubt that the 

 injuries in the specimens sent to me from time to time during the past 

 seventeen years are the work of this beetle. 



Peevention and Remedies. — The first points are treatment in early 

 bpring. The Hop Flea Beetles which remain from the previous season 

 hybernate (that is, spend the winter) in any convenient shelter in or 

 near the Hop-hills, as, for instance, in the stumps of the old dead 

 bines or other refuse ; and (so far as is possible) clearing this away 

 will remove one source of coming trouble. 



As the maggots, which in the Kentish observations were noticed 

 feeding in autumn, dropped from the Hop-cone to the ground, it is obvious 

 that these must go through their transformations at the root of the 

 Hop, and, they being so very small and tender of structure, it would 



