CHAPTER XXI 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE SWEET POTATO * 

 The Sweet-potato Flea-beetle f 



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 char- 

 acteristic manner, quite different from tho work of other flea- 

 beetles (Fig. 309), and often the whole surface is seared but never 

 punctured. As a result many of the leaves of the seedling are 



FIG. 308. The sweet-potato flea-beetle (Chce'ocnema confmis Lee.): adult 

 and larva much enlarged. (After J. B. Smith.) 



killed outright, turn brown, and decay, while new leaves put 

 out from below, thus checking the growth. These attacks have 

 been found to be worst on low land and that previously in sweet 

 potatoes, and are always first noticed near fence rows or w r oodland 

 where the beetles have hibernated. The beetle is bronzed or 



*See Sanderson, Bulletin 59, Md. Agr. Exp. Sta.; J. B. Smith, Bulletin 

 229, N. J. Agr. Exp. Sta. 



t Chcetocnema confinis Lee. Family Chrysomelidce. See Smith, 1. c., p. 4. 



