Report of the State ENTOMOLoaisi 



353 



I have not been able to find the author of this, apparently, new 



form of injury. Mr. A. H. Briggs, of Macedon, N. Y., has kindlji sent 



me pieces of currant-stems thought to have been girdled by the insect 



and to contain the larva, but I was unable to find any living form 



within them. 



The Grapevine Flea-beetle. 



An unusual number of inquiries have been received during the 

 spring and summer of the grapevine flea-beetle, Haltica chalybea 

 Illig. Either the conditions have 

 been more favorable for it, or it is 

 becoming a more formidable pest of 

 our grape-growers. Wherever it 

 makes its appearance effort should 

 be made to destroy the beetles during 

 their hibernation, by burning or re- 

 moving their ordinary winter quar- 

 ters, as in the rubbish of the vine- 

 yards or the loose bark of the posts. 

 In the early spring, when they first 

 make their attack on the buds to 

 which they are so destructive, they 

 should be knocked off daily into a 

 pan of water and kerosene, or jarred 

 to the ground and crushed, or a 

 poisonous liquid applied to the 

 buds. The ravages of the larvae, at 

 a later period, may be controlled by 

 Paris green. [In the accompanying 

 figure, the larvse and the beetles are 

 represented in their natural sizes, 

 feeding upon a twig of grapevine.] 

 Mr. George C. Snow, of Penn Yan, 

 N. Y., has sent me an insect which 

 he detected preying upon the larva 

 by sucking its juices. They were 

 Hemipterous, belonging to the plant 

 bugs, of which so many are known 

 to be valuable aids to us in the 

 destruction of our insect foes. As 

 I could not recognize it in its pupal 

 stage in which it was received (June 26tb), it was submitted to 

 Mr. Uhler, and was referred by him to the genus Fodisus, and prob- 

 ably of the species modestus (Dallas). 



Fig. 40,— The larvae and the adults of 

 the grapevine beetle Haltica chalybea 

 operating on grapevine leaves. 



