304 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



The Spinach Flea-beetle * 



Of the many species of flea-beetles injurious to sugar-beets, 

 the spinach flea-beetle is one of the largest and most destructive. 

 The beetle is nearly one-quarter inch long, shining black, with 

 a greenish or bluish lustre. The prothorax and abdomen are 

 red or reddish yellow, and the legs and antennae are pale yellowish. 

 It occurs from New England to Montana and southward to the 

 Gulf, and is one of the most common pests of beets and spinach, 

 while its native food plants are chickweed and lambsquarter. 



Life History. The beetles hibernate over winter and emerge 

 in the spring during April and May. The buff or orange eggs are 



laid on end in small 

 masses, " at the bases 

 of the plants infested, 

 on bits of leaf or earth, 

 or even within the 

 earth " according to 

 Forbes. The eggs 

 hatch from sometime 

 in April to early July, 

 according to locality. 

 The larvse usually feed 

 on the under side of 

 the leaf, keeping to- 

 gether in families 



which migrate from 

 FIG 257. The spinach flea-beetle (Disonycha i p f + n i pn f w hilp 



T 7 -r^v i \ i j 1 7 77 J-V^CLl \J\J I V til VV II 11C/ 



xanthomelcena Dalm.) : a, beetle; 6, egg mass; 66, 



sculpture of egg; c, larva; d, pupa; e, young young, and drop to the 



larva; /, abdominal segment of same a, c, d, ffronnf q a ~ ^ o t np 



five times natural size; 6, more enlarged; 66, gr 



f, highly magnified. (After Chittenden, U. S. beetles W hen d 1 S- 

 Dept. Agr.) turbed. While young 



they merely gnaw the under surface of the leaf, but later they eat 

 through and riddle it with round holes, in which they are aided 

 by the beetles. The full-grown larva is about one-quarter inch 

 long, of a dull gray color, except on red and purple beets, on 

 which it assumes the color of the plant attacked, is of a cylin- 



* Disonycha xanthome'.cena Dalm. Family Chrysomelidce. See F. H. Chit- 

 tenden, Bulletin 43, Bureau of Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr., p. 14; S. A. Forbes, 

 21st Rept. State Ent. of 111., p. 116. 



