﻿2 BULLETIN 19, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



of its habits and abstractiveness, the kinds of remedies that have 

 been devised for its control, and the nature of the spray equipment 

 and spray material which, in recent experiments, have proved most 

 effective in holding the pest in check. 



HISTORY. 1 



The first published record of this insect was made in 1825, when 

 specimens from Missouri were described under the name Tettigonia 

 comes by Thomas Say. It was next mentioned by Fessenden in 

 1828 as being a serious pest in Massachusetts. In 1841 T. M. Harris, 

 in his Massachusetts report for that year entitled " Insects Injurious 

 to Vegetation," gives a detailed description of the insect and an 

 account of its habits, life history, and injury to the grapevine. These 

 observations of Harris coincide quite closely with those recorded by 

 the more recent workers who have taken up the study of this pest. 

 Since the date of Harris's report the grape leafhopper has become in- 

 creasingly prominent as a vineyard pest, and in almost all parts of this 

 country and Canada it has, at some time or other, appeared in suffi- 

 cient numbers to prove a real menace to the grape-growing industry. 

 Although frequent mention of its injurious occurrence in many parts 

 of the country since 1841 is to be found in entomological literature, 

 but little original study, from an economic point of view, seems to 

 have been bestowed upon this insect, for most of the references have 

 the appearance of being taken from Harris's account. 



During this time, however, a great variety of forms of this species 

 had been collected, and as a result no less than six different specific 

 names had been given it. In 1898 the subfamily Typhlocybinae was 

 the subject of a special study by Prof. C. P. Gillette, who worked 

 out the synonymy of the insect as follows: 



Typhlocyba comes Say, 1825. 

 Variety basilaris Say, 1825. 

 Variety vitis Harris, 1831. 

 Variety affinis Fitch, 1851. 

 Variety vitifex Fitch, 1856. 

 Variety ziczac Walsh, 1864. 

 Variety octonotata Walsh, 1864. 

 Variety coloradensis Gillette, 1892. 

 Variety maculata Gillette, 1898. 

 Variety scutellaris Gillette, 1898. 

 Variety rubra Gillette, 1898. 

 Variety infuscata Gillette, 1898. 



By 1897 it had become so serious a vineyard pest in California as 

 to be placed next in destructive importance to the grape Phylloxera 

 (Phylloxera vastatrix Planch.) and was the subject of a detailed 



1 The titles of papers and books, and their places of publication, are not given under this and other 

 headings, but may be found in the Bibliography, pp. 43-47, by looking for the year indicated and, 

 under that, for the author. 



