230 



THE PEANUT— THE UNPREDICTABLE LEGUME 



copper dust is recommended for peanuts in the Alabama-Florida-Georgia 

 area. 



A dust containing 1 percent DDT and 90 percent sulfur has been 

 recommended (119) for dusting peanuts in the Virginia-Carolina area. 

 Three applications are recommended at 3-week intervals, beginning July 

 10 to 15. 



Tobacco Thrips ^ 



Importance. Thrips damage to young peanuts is widespread over most 

 of the peanut-producing areas. The tobacco thrips, Frankliniella fusca 

 (Hinds), is the principal species involved, although the flower thrips, 

 F. tritici (Fitch), also infests peanuts, living mainly in the flowers ( 120) . 

 Heliothrips indicus occurs on peanuts in Sudan (32). Taeniothrips dis- 

 talis Ky. and T. longistylus Ky. are reported damaging peanuts in India 

 (125). 



Apparently, the first thrips injury to peanuts in the United States 

 was observed by Watson ( 149) when he collected F. fusca from this crop. 

 In 1922 he reported widespread damage in Florida during the spring of 

 1919. Since that time the insect has been observed throughout most of the 

 peanut-growing section of the country. In addition to peanuts, F. fusca 





Figure 3. Leaflets of peanuts showing typical thrips damage. 



