4 BULLETIN 964, U, S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



W. E. Britton (9) of Connecticut, during September, 1904, re- 

 ceived specimens of the insect from Southport, Conn., with the state- 

 ment that much injury was being done by it to smilax growing under 

 glass. Injury to beans, beets, red clover, cowpeas, potatoes, chrys- 

 anthemums, morning-glories, eggplant, cabbages, and pumpkins also 

 occurred at that time. 



In 1907 F. H. Chittenden {10. p. 118) reported that the insect 

 ''lives in great numbers on the leaves, puncturing them so as to cause 

 the death of the tissues in small irregular white patches. In its 

 short- winged form it resembles the black flea-beetles, which affect 

 potato, alike in appearance, in the nature of its work, and in its salta- 

 tory power. Other food plants include potato, pumpkin, cabbage, 

 ornamental plants, clover, and many weeds." 



In 1907 F. M. Webster recorded H. uhleri as destructive to al- 

 falfa over small areas at Topeka, Kans. 



In the Yearbook of 1908 Dr. Chittenden (11) gives the following 

 account of H. citri: 



The garden flea-hopper {Halticus uhleri Giard) was more or less injurious to cucum- 

 bers, squash, and beans in New Jersey; to beans in the. District of Columbia, and to 

 lettuce and sweet potato in the trucking region of Norfolk, Va. 



C. E. Sanborn {14) found the species destructive to alfalfa in Okla- 

 homa in 1912. During the same year J. J. Davis (13) gives the fol- 

 lowing account of Halticus citri: 



This flea-hopper did much damage to smilax in several greenhouses around Chicago 

 in 1908 . . . and just outside of the house the weeds were much infested with it — the 

 latter fact probably accounting for its presence indoors. Early in the spring of 1909 

 the adults — fully winged males and females as well as the short-winged form — were 

 found abundant in one greenhouse at a date which would preclude any possibility of 

 their having developed out-of-doors that spring; and they did not develop inside the 

 greenhouses from eggs deposited the fall before, as the houses had been examined 

 during the -winter and not an active "hopper" found. It was also observed that the 

 individuals became adult in the fall, as cold weather set in. From these observations 

 it appears that the adults hibernate in greenhouses or out-of-doors and become active 

 in the spring, when they deposit their eggs for that season's generation — instead of 

 doing it in the fall before, as has heretofore been supposed. 



Following are from the notes of Mr. G. G. Ainslie, of the Bureau of 

 Entomology : 



Clemson College, S. C, July 16, 1909: The alfalfa is conspicuously whitened by 

 the adults and larvae of this bug which have come there from the adjoining peas. 

 The habitats of the insect seem to be the same on alfalfa as peas. The adults are 

 found on both sides of the leaves but mainly the lower, while the larvae are confined to 

 the lower side. 



Nashville. Tenn., September 5, 1910: Found a field of alfalfa badly whitened by 

 the attacks of this species. The plants looked sickly from the work of these bugs. 



July 13, 1913, Mr. E. B. Blakeslee of Winchester, Va., reported to 

 Prof. A. L. Quaintance of the Bureau of Entomology the occurrence 

 of enormous numbers of H. citri in alfalfa fields, both in the adult and 



