117 
be apt to be missed. The cucumber beetle mentioned cuts holes of the 
same character in the leaves, and can be seen in broad daylight feed- 
ing on the upper surface. The pale-striped flea-beetle also feeds 
freely on the upper surface, while the beetles of Disonycha are gener- 
ally found under the plants on the ground during the heat of the day 
and usually drop off the plants at the h'rst sign of disturbance. At 
other times, the larvae on the under surface of the leaves would not be 
noticed by the average observer. It will thus readily be seen that the 
year 1900 was not necessarily an exceptional one as regards attack by 
this flea-beetle in the East, as much of the injury that has been attrib- 
uted to other species mentioned may often 
in reality be due, at least partially, to the 
spinach flea-beetle. 
August 16, 1900, the writer observed nu- 
merous beetles of this species, dead and 
living, under plants of saltbush belonging to 
different species of Atriplex, growing on 
the experimental plats on the Department 
grounds. Under these plants the ground 
was fairly strewn with living and dead beetles, 
and larva, were found, though somewhat ^^S^ 
sparingly at this time, on the foliage. The 
species of Atriplex upon which this flea-beetle was observed include A. 
semibaccativni, A. holocarpa, A. velutinella, and an undetermined 
form — all cultivated varieties, and useful as forage plants. 
Numerous nymphs of the wheel bug {Prionidus cristatus) were 
observed during the early part of June on beets infested with this 
flea-beetle. Such as were seen feeding had the larvae of the beetle 
impaled on their beaks. 
The Eggplant Flea-beetle {Ejntrix fuscula Cr.).— Injury by this flea- 
beetle (fig. 30) which has been treated somewhat fully in Bulletin 19, 
n. s. (pp. 87-89), was very serious to early potatoes near Cabin John, 
Md., in 1900. When the infested fields were visited Ma} T 14, every 
plant was seen to be covered with the beetles. The} r were described 
to the writer as having burrowed beneath the surface of the earth in 
search of the potato sprouts. 
The common cucumber flea-beetle, Ejntrix cucumeris, occurred upon 
the same plants in less numbers, as did also the Colorado potato beetle, 
Doryphova 10-lineata. Injury was also due in part to cutworms, and 
to extreme heat and drought, which had lasted for several da} T s. 
O 
