250 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



similar habits.* Few planters are able to identify the cause 

 of the supposed injury, but many know these insects as 

 " dodgers," from their habit of quickly dodging to the opposite 

 side of the stem when disturbed. Extensive observations and 

 repeated experiments during two seasons failed to show the 

 slightest evidence that these insects are ever injurious to cotton, 

 though they are common upon it, the supposed injury being 

 undoubtedly due to the physiological condition of the plant which 

 causes a shedding of the fruit at the season when the supposed 

 injury occurs. 



a b c 



FIG. 178. Three cotton leaf hoppers commonly called sharpshooters: 

 a, Auladzes irrorata; b, Oncometopia undala; c, Oncometopia lateralis 

 much enlarged. (Author's illustration, U. S. Dept. Agr.) 



The adult insects hibernate in rubbish on the ground near the 

 food-plants and appear in early spring on the elm, hackberry, red- 

 bud, cottonwood, willow, and the tender shoots of other trees, 

 especially on bottom-land near streams. Here they suck the 

 juices of the tender leaves and deposit their eggs in them. The 

 eggs are laid in rows of ten to fifteen, side by side, just under the 

 surface of the leaf, forming a blister-like mark. They hatch in a 



* Oncometopia undata Fab., O. lateralis Fab., and Aulacizes irrorata Fab. 



