
5 
THE TOBACCO FLEA-BEETLE. 
(Epitrix parvula Fabr. ) 
This active little insect (fig. 1) may be found in almost any tobacco 
field from Arkansas to Florida and north to Connecticut. It is a 
minute, oval, reddish-brown species, which occurs upon many sola- 
naceous plants, feeding upon tomato, potato, horse nettle, and jimson 
weed (Datura stramonium). The beetles make their appearance in 
July, attacking first the lower and then the upper leaves. After they 
have fed for awhile the leaf becomes full of small, dry spots and then 
of holes about the size of a pin point, which later may become con- 
siderably enlarged (fig. 2). When 
the crop is cured it is poor and 
thin, and frequently full of small 
holes. While the main damage is 
done in the beetle condition, the 
insect feeds also, inits early stages, 
upon the tobacco. Its eggs being 
laid at the roots, hatch into minute, 
whitish larve, which feed upon 
the roots, and, in the course of 
about a month, as ascertained by 
Mr. Chittenden, reach full growth, 
transform to pupee, and again to 
adult beetles. The damage done 
to the rootsin this way mustaffect Fic. 1—Epitrix parvula: a, adult beetle; b, 
the health of the plant to a certain oe ee Me i en Seen enue 
extent, but it isnot appreciable in view; f, pupa—a,b, f enlarged about fifteen 
comparison withthe damage which eee d, e more enlarged (after Chit- 
the adult beetles do to the leaves. 
The insect, in its early stages, is not confined to tobacco, but feeds 
also upon the nightshade and the jimson weed, as also ascertained by 
Mr. Chittenden. 
It is not alone in the actual damage to the leaves done by the jaws 
of the beetle that this insect is injurious to the foliage of tobacco, but 
through the further fact that these little holes, even when the pune- 
ture is not through the entire thickness of the leaf, become the 
entrance points of fungous spores or bacteria, which start a disease of 
the leaf which frequently damages it much more than the insects 
themselves. In moist weather this disease, started by the flea-beetles, 
may do considerable damage when the flea-beetles themselves are 
comparatively scarce. 
By some writers the round white spots in the leaves, which are 
illustrated in fig. 3, have been considered to result from the initial 
work of the tobacco flea-beetle; but, as reported by several workers 
upon fungous diseases, these spots have been shown to be invaded by 

