58 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO GARDEN AND ORCHARD CROPS. 



would be an easy matter to mistake one of the flea-beetles of the genus 

 Chsetocnema for this bug. Personally the writer is inclined to believe 

 that the other plants mentioned are true food plants of this species, as 

 he has found it in considerable abundance on egg-plant in the vicinity 

 of the District of Columbia, and Mr. C. W. Mally has observed it also 

 feeding on ground cherry, Phy sails pubescens, plants of the same botan- 

 ical family, the Solanacese. 



During the season of 1897, from the middle of July until about the 

 middle of September, this species was noticed in abundance by the 

 writer at Kensington and Marshall Hall, Md., on beans, peas, and cow- 

 peas, but most abundantly on beans. At this latter date specimens 

 were brought to this office by Mr. R. Balluff from the flower garden 

 attached to the Executive Mansion at Washington, with the report that 

 these bugs were injurious to several plants, particularly chrysan- 

 themums. 



During 1898 word was received from Mr. J. F. Collins, curator of the 

 herbarium at Brown University, Providence, R. I., under date of 

 August 11 that these bugs were found in numbers on a lawn at that 

 place. The grass was apparently dead, and brown patches, in some 

 cases nearly two feet across, were conspicuous and believed to be the 

 result of the work of this insect. 



LITERATURE. 



The economic literature of this insect is limited. The species was 

 originally given the name Halticus minutus MS. by Dr. Ph. E. Uhler 

 (E. A. Popenoe, Rep. Dept. of Hort. and Ent. Exp. Station Kansas, 

 Sec. Ann. Rep. 1889 [also Bui. 10, Dec, 1890], p. 212, PI. ix, figs. 10, 

 11, and 12) • and although the species was figured and briefly described 

 by Professor Popenoe under that name, the technical description does 

 not appear to have ever been published. Unfortunately, the specific 

 name minutus is preoccupied, a species having been described as 

 Halticus minutus Reut. from three winged females found at Singapore, 

 Malay Archipelago (see Giard's article, Soc. de Biol., Compt. Rend., 

 1892, 9 ser., vol. iv, pp. 79-82). In accordance with a well-established 

 rule in the case of preoccupied names, M. G-iard proposed the name 

 Halticus uhleri for the American species. 



Dr. Uhler, in a paper published in the Proceedings of the Entomo- 

 logical Society of Washington (vol. n, p. 378, June, 1893), contributes 

 some notes on this insect, mentioned as Halticus uhleri Giard. From 

 this the following paragraph is quoted: 



This species is now known to be widely distributed in the United States, and in 

 many localities of Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania it is extremely abundant 

 upon cabbages in the gardens. It has been found a few times by the writer upon 

 burdock, Lappa major, in the neighborhood of Baltimore. The leaves of this plant 

 were almost covered by the great number of these little flea-like hoppers, which 

 jumped off into the surrounding soil upon the lightest approach of the collecting 

 net. It occurs fully winged in July, but the greater number of the females appear 

 in the unfinished state, which preserves the more robust and convex figure, with the 

 short and completely coriaceous wing covers. 



