228 HEMIPTEKA. 



their motions from j)lace to place ; and when the leaves 

 are agitated, they leap and fly from them in swarms, but 

 soon alight and begin again their destructive operations. 

 The infested leaves at length become yellow, sickly, and 

 prematurely dry, and give to the vine at midsummer the 

 aspect it naturally assumes on the approach of winter. But 

 this is not the only injury arising from the exhausting punc- 

 tures of the vine-hoppers. In consequence of the interrup- 

 tion of the important functions of the leaves, the plant itself 

 languishes, the stem does not increase in size, very little new 

 wood is formed, or, in the language of the gardeners, the 

 canes do not ripen well, the fruit is stunted and mildews, 

 and, if the evil be allowed to go on unchecked, in a few 

 years the vines become exhausted, barren, and worthless. 

 In the autumn the vine-hoppers desert the vines, and retire 

 for shelter during the coming whiter beneath fallen leaves 

 and among the decayed tufts and roots of grass, where they 

 remain till the following spring, when they emerge from 

 their winter-quarters, and hi due time deposit their eggs 

 upon the leaves of the vine, and then perish. 



As the vine-hoppers are much more hardy and more 

 vivacious than the European vine-fretters or plant-lice, the 

 applications that have proved destructive to the latter are 

 by no means so efficacious with the former. Fumigations 

 with tobacco, beneath a movable tent placed over the trel- 

 lises, answer the purpose completely.* They require fre- 

 quent repetition, and considerable care is necessary to pre- 

 vent the escape and insure the destruction of the insects ; 

 circumstances which render the discovery of some more 

 expeditious method an object to those whose vineyards are 

 extensive. 



There is another little leaf-hopper that has been mistaken 

 for a vine-fretter or Thrips, though never found upon the 

 grape-vine. It lives upon the leaves of rose-bushes, and is 



. * See Fessenden's " New American Gardener," p. 299, for a description of the 

 tent and of the process of fumigation. 



