INSECT PESTS OF CIGAR-TYPE TOBACCOS Di. 
After the tobacco crop is harvested there may be additional gen- 
erations which so overlap that it is impossible to tell them apart. 
During the late summer months the beetles become very scarce. 
Few eggs are deposited and still fewer young survive. <A large num- 
ber of the adults apparently die and the remainder show little activity. 
FOOD PLANTS 
Although tobacco is the preferred food plant of the tobacco flea 
beetle, numerous other wild and cultivated plants belonging to the 
same family (Solanaceae) are 
fed on to a moderate extent. 
Among these the most important 
are potato, tomato, eggplant, 
pepper, groundcherry, night- 
shade, horsenettle, and jimson- 
weed. In the absence of solana- 
ceous plants the beetles will feed 
sparingly on various other wild 
and cultivated plants. 
CHARACTER OF THE INJURY 
The flea beetle injures tobacco 
by eating small irregular holes in 
the leaves (fig. 30). The insect 
seldom confines its feeding to 
any one portion of the leaf but 
usually feeds spasmodically over 
the entire leaf surface. As the 
holes are often made before the 
_leaf has completed its growth, 
the size of the holes increases as 
the leaf grows, and the damage 
is accordingly increased. 
In this region flea beetle in- 
jury is usually of economic im- 
portance only on tobacco that is 
raised for cigar wrappers, in - 7 
which the injury consists in loss ee cacao a Dee 
of quality. Even a few small faine ete adult of the flea beetle. 
holes in the leaves depreciate the This Jeaf igs practically worthless for 
value of the product, as the per- — wrapper purposes. 
centage of wrappers that can be 
cut from them is reduced. In certain cases the leaves may be so 
injured that no wrappers can be obtained from them, and the tobacco 
is thereby reduced to the filler grade with a very heavy loss in value. 
CONTROL MEASURES 
CULTURAL CONTROL MEASURES 
_ Every possible means should be used to keep insect pests of tcbacco 
im this region in a continuous state of subjection. This applies 
especially to the tobacco flea beetle, which has caused heavy losses 
