

86 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO GARDEN AND ORCHARD CROPS. 



July 20 of the same year, in the course of a day's collecting' of tobacco 

 insects, Mr. F. 0. Pratt found this flea-beetle at College Station, Md., 

 where it was by far the most abundant species, no other insects troub- 

 ling tobacco in that vicinity. It was reported as slightly injurious 

 the previous year in the same locality (W. G. Johnson, Bui. 9, n. s., 

 Div. Ent., p. 81). 



July 29 Mr. T. G. Allen wrote of this species which, in connection 

 with one of the other common species of Epitrix, either cucumeris or 

 fitscula, was injuring the tobacco at and in the vicinity of Skipwith 

 Mecklenburg County, Va. He stated that for. the past five or six years 

 the crop had been very much damaged by these flea-beetles and that 

 they seemed to increase with every year. They were reported to make 

 their appearance from the middle of July to the first of August, attack- 

 ing first the bottom and afterwards the upper portions of the plant to 

 the topmost leaves. After they have fed upon a leaf for a while it 

 becomes full of small dry spots and then of holes about the size of a 

 pin point. When the leaf is cured it is poor and thin. At the time of 

 writing he stated that he counted as many as 37 beetles on a single 

 leaf. 



The life cycle. — A number of beetles were placed, July 21, upon a 

 potted plant of tobacco that had been kept free from the attacks of 

 this species, which had not at that date, so far as observed, put in an 

 appearance in the vicinity of the Insectary. The potted plant was not 

 examined until August 11, and then two pupa3 and one larva were 

 obtained. The larva transformed to pupa August 12 and to imago on 

 the 18th, which gives twenty-eight days as the full life cycle period, 

 presuming upon the deposition of the eggs upon the first day of the 

 experiment, about which there is no reasonable doubt. The weather 

 was very hot during this period. 



Eggs were obtained but did not hatch in confinement. The minimum 

 period is probably the same as that ascertained of the pupa, six days, 

 which would afford by deduction a larval period of sixteen days. 



The following is a description of the egg : 



The egg. — The egg is of about the same length as that of E. fuscula, 

 but is narrower and elliptical-ovate instead of elliptical oval, measur- 

 ing about two and a half times as long as wide. The color is gray with 

 scarcely a tinge of yellow. Areas similar to fuscula, but apparently 

 much more minute, not being visible except under a high magnifying 

 power. Length: 0.40 ,nm ; width: 0.18 ,1,m . 



How and where the egg is deposited in nature remains to be dis- 

 covered. 



Food plants. — We have now ascertained three larval food plants, 

 tobacco, Solarium nigrum, and Datura stramonium, but it is fairly certain 

 that the larva would thrive on any of the Solanacese. The beetles have 

 been observed to feed on Solanum esculentum and carolinense, and 

 appear to prefer the leaves of the Jamestown weed among weeds, and 

 tobacco among cultivated plants. In our experimental plat in which 



