9 



and soft or spongy when they do not kill them outright. Some other 

 sucking- insects — plant-lice, plant-bugs, leaf-hoppers, and the like — 

 occasionall}' injure the plants by absorbing their vital juices, but with 

 some notable exceptions they are comparatively unimportant as beet 

 pests. 



Many of the most destructive or best known sugar-beet pests have 

 received more extended notice in recent publications of the Division of 

 Entomology, notabh'in Bulletins 19, 23, 29, 33, and -iO, new series (from 

 which the present article has been largelj' collated), in addition to other 

 publications which have been cited in the introductory paragraph and 

 others which will he mentioned in connection with the different species 

 as they are considered. 



In indicating methods of control to be observed for insects which 

 are not special enemies of the sugar beet, it has been found necessary, 

 owing to our somewhat imperfect acquaintance with all of the condi- 

 tions which surround attack, to treat the subject in a general manner. 

 The remedies for different forms and classes of insects are therefore 

 considered as they occur upon the farm. Where deemed advisable, 

 however, an effort has been made to limit remedial directions to the 

 occurrence of many of these insects in tields of sugar beet. It may 

 therefore be stated that as a general rule remedies prescribed for 

 insects as these occur on their favorite food plants also serve for their 

 destruction on other crops. Exception is made of insects such as 

 the southern corn root-worm, which is a prime enemy of corn, though 

 the beetles are usually to be found in ))eet fields, since the elaborate 

 treatment which is often necessary in combating this pest on corn, 

 need not be employed on beets and other crops where its injuries are 

 comparatively insignificant. 



LEAF-BEETLES AND FLEA-BEETLES. 



Several leaf-feeding beetles of the familv Chrysomelidae, known 

 as leaf-beetles and flea-beetles, are quite conspicuous as enemies of 

 the sugar beet. Three of the leaf -beetles are apparently peculiar to 

 beets among- cultivated plants, injuring them both in the adult and the 

 larval stage, while numerous flea-beetles, although as a rule general 

 feeders, are even more destructive by attacking the plants early in the 

 season, when the}' are least able to withstand injury. 



THE LARGER SUGAR-BEET LEAF-BEETLE. 



{Mono.rid ])Hncl icoll is Say.) 



With the cultivation of the sugar beet in the West there has come 

 to prey upon it a moderate-sized leaf -beetle, known in parts of New 

 .Mexico as the "French bug."" Its presence in beet fields was first 



« See the author's article, Bui. 18, Div. Eut., U. S. Dept. Agr., p. 95. 



