17 



tinge of yellow, the surface divided into very minute irregular areas 

 only visible under a high magnification. Length 0.4 mm., width 

 0.18 mm. 



Larva: The larva, according to the same authority/ is 3.5 mm. 

 long, delicate and filiform or threadlike, milky white in color except 

 the head, which is honey yellow, and with darker brown mouth parts 

 and sutures. The body is subcylindrical, moderately wrinkled and 

 segmented, and sparsely covered with short hairs. The head is only 

 moderately chitinized, and the first, thoracic, and last, or anal, seg- 

 ment are apparently not at all or only slightly chitinized. The anal 

 segment is furnished with a small proleg, but there are no visible den- 

 ticles at its apex. 



Pupa: The pupa is white like the larva and resembles the pupa of 

 Diabrotica, especially in the anal hooklike appendages. The insect 

 pupates in a cell. 



Adult: The adult is very minute, measuring scarcely 1.5 mm. in 

 length, is oblong ovate in form, and fight brown in color. The 

 elytra are usually marked with a dark transverse median band of 

 greater or less extent. 



A life cycle is said to run through 28 days, as follows: Egg, 6 days; 

 larva, 16 days; pupa, 6 days. In Hawaii it would presumably be 

 somewhat shorter. 



Remedies. — On the commercial plantations of Hawaii the flea- 

 beetle does not seem to be much of a pest except late in the growing 

 season, but in neglected tobacco it becomes very numerous. For this 

 reason it is necessary in growing tobacco commercially to keep well 

 up in the field work and allow no plants to remain around after the 

 tobacco has been picked. Other solanaceous crops should not be 

 grown near the tobacco, and all solanaceous weeds in the neighbor- 

 hood should be periodically destroyed. When, however, the flea- 

 beetle is present in sufficient numbers to damage the crop, the affected 

 plants may be sprayed with arsenate of lead, 1 pound to 20 gallons of 

 water, paste form (only one-half of this amount of powdered arsenate 

 of lead), which will kill any beetles feeding on the sprayed foliage. 



MINOR PESTS. 



There are a few minor pests of tobacco, such, for instance, as the 

 caterpillars of Plusia chalcites and of Amorbia emigrateUa, which are 

 rather general feeders and are found on various cultivated and wild 

 plants without being particularly injurious to all of them; and the 

 mealy bugs Pseudococcus dtri and Pseudococcus virgatus, which are 

 also found on many different plants but are noticeably injurious only 

 under exceptional circumstances. In the Kona tobacco fields 



i U. S. Dept. Agr., Div. Ent. Bui. 10, n. ser., p. 79 (1898). 



