COLEOPTEEA OK BEETLES. 133 



of farmers find this plan very beneficial. "When we see the fly 

 commencing to destroy we can also keep them off by broadcast- 

 ing over the young plants, early in the morning when the dew is 

 on the leaf, soot, lime, and road-dust mixed in equal quantities. 

 This compound sticks to the young leaves and drives the fly off 

 for some time ; a dressing of superphosphate at the same time 

 would push the growth on, and so get the plant out of the 

 young and vulnerable stage. Those who have a " strawsoniser " 

 cannot do better than run the machine over the young plants as - 

 soon as they are up, spraying them with pure paraffin at the 

 rate of l^ to 2 gallons to the acre. The destruction of all 

 winter shelter should also be paid attention to. 



The Hop-plea (Haltioa conoinna). 



Very often in the early part of the year the hop-shoots are 

 much eaten away by this flea-beetle, which also goes to the 

 turnips. The hop-flea does most damage in warm days when 

 the nights have been cold, checking the growth of bine. 

 It also eats the leaves in the same way as the turnip -flea, 

 and occasionally even attacks the cones themselves, when the 

 damage of course is irreparable. The larvae are fotmd in the 

 hop-leaf and the pupse in the hiUs, the life-history being similar 

 to H. nemorum. Great numbers of H. coneinna hibernate in 

 broken pieces of bine, in the bine-stumps left in the ground, and, 

 like the turnip-flea, in hedgerows and other shelter. H. coneinna 

 is a brassy-coloured flea-beetle. Spraying the young bine with 

 paraffin emulsion keeps the flea-beetles off, whilst a good dress- 

 ing of soot and lime over the hills in the early morning before 

 the flies are about will keep the pest well in check. 



An allied beetle, Psylliodes ottenuatus, sometimes quite ruins 

 hops in an advanced state in Kent by riddling the cones and 

 leaves, when the former are beginning to ripen. 



