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early in spring; the females soon deposit their minute eggs upon the roots of 

 common weeds of the Nightshade family, the resulting grubs feeding under- 

 ground and changing there, when full grown, to the pupal state. The beetles, 

 when they issue, attack the leaves, and in some years towards the end of July 



Potato Flea-beetle ; line at 

 side indicates natural size. 

 (After Chittenden, Bull. 19, 



N.S., Div. of Ent., U.S. Dept. 



Agr.) 



or early in August serious injury is effected. In the spring the young leaves of 

 such plants as have been mentioned above are often entirely eaten by the over- 

 winterinsf beetles. 



THE GRAPE VINE FLEA-BEETLE {Haltica chalybca III.) 



This common flea-bettle, so called from the conspicuous red patch on the 

 top of the head, is jet black in colour and in length about three-sixteenths of an 

 inch. The body is slender and elongated. In Ontario, Quebec and other eastern 

 provinces the beetles are sometimes extremely numerous. The insect has a very 

 wide range of feeding plants. It has been particularly destructive early in the 

 season to the foliage of potatoes, beans and young grapes, as we'll as to many 

 kinds of deciduous shrubs. Large numbers of the beetles have been found upon 

 flowering plants in gardens such as marsh mallows, rose mallows and Japanese 

 honeysuckles. 



THE GRAPE VINE FLEA-BEETLE {Haltica chalybea III.) 



The tender buds of grape vines are often completely eaten by swarms of 

 thes flea- beetles which leave their winter quarters early in spring. In Ontario, 

 grape growers in some sections have suffered considerably from the attack of 

 this beetle which is one-fifth of an inch long, varying in colour from a steel-blue 

 to green. In Quebec province, fortunately the insect is not complained of to a 

 serious extent, but it has been reported from the Eastern Townships and deserves 

 watching. About the time the leaves have expanded, the young grubs hatch and 

 eat out irregular holes, becoming full-grown in three or four weeks, at which 

 time they are one-third of an inch long and of a dirty yellowish-brown colour with 

 black, shining, bristle-bearing tubercles. When mature, the grubs drop to the 

 ground and enter the arth to change to the pupal state, and in a week or two the 

 beetles emerge. As these beetles pass the winter in the perfect state beneath dead 



