8 



spinach, subsist normally on wild plants of the same botanical order — 

 the Chenopodiace^e, or goosefoot family, which includes our common 

 lambsquarters {Chenopodinni album), spinach, and some related plants 

 that arc cultivated for ornament and as forage crops. Of the latter 

 are several forms of saltbush (Atriplex). Many beet depredators also 

 live on plants belonging to an allied family — the Amaranths — Avhich 

 contains man}' common weeds, including pigweed, as Avell as a few 

 ornamental forms. 



One of the earliest instances of injur}' to the beet reported in 

 America is that furnished by our first economic entomologist, Harris,'" 

 in 1841. In quite .recent years, however, several species have been so 

 prominent as pests in fields of sugar beet that they have received 

 names indicative of their beet-feeding habit, while a few take their 

 common names from spinach. Among these are the beet army worm, ■' 

 the beet webworm,^ the beet or spinach leaf-miner,'^ spinach flea- 

 beetle,^ beet carrion beetle/beet aphis,'' European beet tortoise beetle,'' 

 and two species of leaf -beetles.' Of the various insects known to live 

 on this plant, not more than about one-third, or -10 or 50 species, can 

 be classed as noticeably destructive to it. 



It is diflicult to decide at this time, owing to the lack of study given 

 the subject over the entire country where beets are raised, which forms 

 of insects are of the highest importance. The diflferent insects which 

 have been mentioned specifically are more attached to beet and spinach 

 than to other plants, and the greatest losses, if we take the entire 

 country into consideration, are probably due to the ravages of flea- 

 beetles, but they, as well as cutworms and similar groups, are so 

 periodical or, more properly speaking, irregular in their depredations 

 that an exact estimate of their economic status can not be made. Differ- 

 ent species of leaf-beetles and caterpillars other than cutworms do 

 more or less injury, and several blister beetles devour the foliage of 

 sugar and table beets freely; most forms of the last, however, usually 

 make their appearance so late in the season that, although defoliation 

 may be excessive, comparatively little damage is accomplished. The 

 same is true of some species of grasshoppers. 



Beets until recently were comparatively free from subterranean 

 insect enemies, but there are two forms of common farm pests, white 

 grubs and wireworms, that affect underground portions of the plants 

 and occasionally injure them; in addition to these, some kinds of root- 

 lice and mealy-bugs injure the roots by suction, rendering them small 



«The species mentioned is the zebra caterpillar [Mnviestra 2ncta). Rept. Ins. Mass. 

 Inj.to Yeg., p. 328. 



^ Caradrina exigua. f Silpha optica. 



c Loxostege sticticalis. Pemphigus beta: 



'^ Pegomya vidna. ^ Cassida ')tebulom. 



^ Disonycha xanthomelwna. * Monoxia puncticollis and M. consputa. 



