THE HOP FLEA -BEETLE. 
79 
The following account of the life history and habits of this species 
as it occurs in British Columbia is taken from Mr. Quayle's manu- 
scripts: 
LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS. 
The adult. — The beetle appears very early in the spring and, according to 
reports, patiently awaits the coming of its food plant. This early attack of 
the beetle as the plants are bursting through the ground and before the leaves 
are fully expanded is one of the things that makes control work difficult 
Before the hops appear the beetles are 
known to attack the nettle, and often com- 
pletely riddle the leaves. They also attack 
other plants, and have been seen, and evi- 
dence of their work noticed, on potato, 
mangel, beet, turnip, dock, lamb's-quarters, 
pigweed, and red as well as white clover. 
Xone of these plants is attacked, however, 
in preference to hops and it is rarely that 
they are found at this season on anything 
but hop vines. In one or two cases they 
were observed in some numbers on potato, 
at a considerable distance from hop vines. 
On a small field of hops that was deserted 
last year on account of this flea-beetle and 
planted to clover, the leaves of the latter 
were considerably eaten. 
The first appearance of the beetles in this 
section, according to Mr. Hulbert, was 
fourteen years ago. and they have been 
attacking his hops for the past five years. 
The beetles jump very readily when dis- 
turbed, but fall to the ground, usually not 
far from the base of the vine. Experiments 
to determine the power of jumping, which is 
an important factor in control work, indicate 
that they may not jump more than a foot 
in the vertical and about a foot and a half 
in the horizontal. 
Feeding occurs almost entirely on the 
upper surface of the leaves, where they 
eat out small, nearly round holes about 
one-eighth of an inch in diameter. This is 
continued until the leaf is reduced to a network and finally nothing but the 
main ribs remain. Many of the vines grew to a height of three or four feet, 
then the foliage was completely stripped off, leaving the dead stalks, which 
may still be seen in the fields. Many of the vines are thus killed to the 
ground. Strings were put in place in VM)<, in anticipation of the usual crop, 
hut were taken down and saved for another year, as the vines that started 
afterward were too late to make a crop. Cultivation was stopped ami a 
thousand sheep were Imported from California by the Horsl Company to 
feed in their yards. 
The beetles, with their more or less cone-shaped bodies, readily make their 
way through anything into which they can get their heads, and our expert- 
Fig. 1G. — Trained hop shoots stripped 
by flea-beetle. (Original.) 
