INSECTS INJURIOUS TO MISCELLANEOUS CROPS 383 



beds, being apparent by the plants turning yellow and dying 

 much earlier than they naturally do. 



Pulling the old stalks and burning them in late summer seems 

 to be the best means for controlling the pest, from our present 

 knowledge of it, which, however, is still rather meager. Dr. 

 Chittenden has suggested that letting a few stalks grow as a 

 trap-crop to which the flies might be lured, and then destroying 

 these stalks, might protect the cutting beds. 



D. E. Fink (I.e.) recommends the addition of syrup to the 

 arsenical applied for the beetles so that it 

 will act as a poisoned bait for the flies. In 

 addition to this he suggests pulling the in- 

 fested stalks in late fall and early spring and 

 destroying them. 



The Sweet-potato Flea-beetle * 



As soon as the sweet-potato plants are 

 set out they are often attacked by hordes of 

 hungry little brownish flea-beetles. Small 

 channels are eaten out of both surfaces of 

 the leaf in a very characteristic manner, 

 quite different from the work of other flea- 

 beetles (Fig. 320), and often the whole sur- 

 face is seared but never punctured. As a 

 result many of the leaves of the seedling are 

 killed outright, turn brown, and decay, while 

 new leaves put out from below, thus check- 

 ing the growth. These attacks have been 

 found to be worst on low land and that pre- 

 viously in sweet potatoes, and are' always 

 first noticed near fence rows or woodland 

 where the beetles have hibernated. The 

 beetle is bronzed or brassy-brown about 

 one-sixteenth inch long, thick set, and the 

 wing-covers when seen under a lens are 

 deeply striated. 



FIG. 320. The sweet- 

 potato flea-beetle 

 (Chceiocnema confinis 

 Lee.) : adult and larva 

 much enlarged. 

 (After J. B. Smith.) 



* Chcetocnema confinis Leo. Family Chrysomelidce. See Sanderson, Bul- 

 letin 59, Md. Agr. Exp. Sta.; J. B. Smith, Bulletin 229, N. J. Agr. Exp. Sta. 



