26 BULLETIN 964, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
insect. There are objections to this measure, however, particularly 
in fields having a good stand. Much labor and expense are required 
to make a seed bed and to crop the land, and a measure which would 
involve repetition of these operations would tend to discourage the 
growing of alfalfa. 
SUMMARY. 
One of the most striking hemipterous forms of the family Capsidae 
is the garden flea-hopper, Halticus citri Ashm. The male adult has 
the typical capsid form with long wings, while the female adult 
differs in appearance, being wingless with a convex robust figure 
suggesting to the observer a new species. Rarely, female adults are 
found which resemble the males in general appearance, except that 
they are more robust and have long wings ; this form, however, upon 
close observation is found to be a trifle larger with a more robust body 
together with a more perfectly shaped head and thorax, and its 
genitalia resemble those of the wingless female. 
The individuals hop and jump about in the meadow in the manner 
of leafhoppers. The males are more active than the females, prob- 
ably because they have functional wings. 
In South Carolina and Georgia these insects become abundant in 
early summer and continue so until late fall, when they gradually 
disappear, the older individuals dying and the younger seeking hiber- 
nation quarters under or at the base of their favorite host plants and 
in protected places such as fences, terraces, or shrubbery. 
Both nymphs and adults suck sap from punctures made in the 
leaves, petioles, and stems of the plants, causing discoloration, wilting, 
and, in severe infestation, death. 
Leguminous plants appear to constitute its favorite foods and 
places for breeding, although its range of host plants is extremely 
wide. 
The eggs are deposited in the leaves and petioles of the food plants, 
usually in places where adults have been feeding. 
The incubation period of the egg at Columbia, S. C, covered from 
6 to 16 days with an average of 11 days. The five instars of the 
nymph stage together cover from 10 to 18 days with an average 
of 14 days. The combined length of nymph and adult stages was 
25 days. 
In the latitude of South Carolina there are from five to six genera- 
tions annually. The species was found to hibernate in the adult stage. 
The garden flea-hopper is little affected by natural enemies, but 
changes in weather reduce its numbers during the winter months. 
Hibernation and subsequent multiplication are prevented where 
weeds and plants that remain green late in the fall and resume growth 
in the spring are cleaned up in the fall and destroyed. 
