treo RINCIPAL INSECT ENEMIES OF THE (GRAPE. 
That the grape is distinctively an American plant is indicated by the 
fact that our indigenous wild species number nearly as many as occur 
in all the world besides. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that 
this continent is responsible also for the chief enemies of the vine, 
both insect and fungous, as, for example, the grape phylloxera, which, 
in capacity for harm, taken the world over, outranks all other vine 
evils together, and such blighting fungous diseases as the two mil- 
dews and the black rot. The rapid growth of the vine industry in 
this country and the increasing cultivation of the less vigorous Euro- 
pean grapes make it desirable to consider briefly, from the standpoint 
of remedies, its leading insect enemies. 
Upward of 200 different insects have already been listed as occur- 
ring on the vine in this country, and the records of the Department 
alone refer to over 100 different insects. Few of these, however, are 
very serious enemies, being either of rare occurrence or seldom numer- 
ous, and for practical purposes the few species considered below 
include those of real importance. They are the grape phylloxera, 
the grapevine fidia, both chiefly destructive to the roots; the cane- 
borer, destructive particularly to the young shoots; the leaf-hopper, 
the flea-beetle, rose-chafer with its allies, and leaf-folder, together 
with hawk moths and cutworms, damaging foliage, and the grape- 
berry moth, the principal fruit pest. 
The extent of the loss that frequently results from these insects 
may be understood by reference to a few instances. The phylloxera 
when at its worst had destroyed in France some 2,500,000 acres of 
vineyards, representing an annual loss in wine products of the value 
of $150,000,000, and the French Government had expended up to 1895 
in phylloxera work over $4,500,000 and remitted taxes to the amount 
of $3,000,000 more. The grapevine fidia, on the authority of an Ohio 
correspondent, in a single season in one vineyard killed 400 out of 
500 strong 5-year-old vines. The prominent leaf defoliators, as the 
rose-chafer and flea-beetle, frequently destroy or vastly injure the 
crop over large districts, and the little leaf-hopper, though rarely 
preventing a partial crop, is so uniformly present and widely distrib- 
uted as to probably levy a heavier tribute on the grape in this country 
than any other insect. 
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