8 
spinach, subsist normally on wild plants of the same botanical order — 
the Chenopodiaceae, or goosefoot family, which includes our common 
lambsquarters {Chenopodium alhum). spinach, and some related plants 
that are cultivated for ornament and as forage crops. Of the latter 
are several forms of saltbush (Atriplex). Many beet depredators also 
live on plants belonging- to an allied family — the Amaranths — Avhich 
contains many common weeds, including pigweed, as well as a few 
ornamental forms. 
One of the earliest instances of injury to the beet reported in 
America is that furnished by our first economic entomologist, Harris,^ 
inlSttl. In quite -recent 3'ears, however, several species have been so 
prominent as pests in fields of sugar beet that they have received 
names indicative of their beet-feeding habit, while a few take their 
common names from spinach. Among these are the beet army worm,^ 
the beet webworm.^ the beet or spinach leaf-miner, ^^ spinach flea- 
beetle,^ beet carrion beetle,-^' beet aphis. ■'^ European beet tortoise beetle,^ 
and two species of leaf -beetles.^ Of the various insects known to live 
on this plant, not more than about one-third, or 40 or 50 species, can 
be classed as noticeably destructive to it. 
It is difificult to decide at this time, owing to the lack of study given 
the subject over the entire country where beets are raised, which forms 
of insects are of the highest importance. The different insects which 
have been mentioned specifically are more attached to beet and spinach 
than to other plants, and the greatest losses, if we take the entire 
country into consideration, are probably due to the ravages of flea- 
beetles, but they, as well as cutworms and similar groups, are so 
periodical or, more properly speaking, irregiilar in their depredations 
that an exact estimate of their economic status can not be made. Difler- 
ent species of leaf-beetles and caterpillars other than cutworms do 
more or less injury, and several blister beetles devour the foliage of 
sugar and table beets freely; most forms of the last, however, usually 
make their appearance so late in the season that, although defoliation 
may be excessive, comparatively little damage is accomplished. The 
same is true of some species of grasshoppers. 
Beets until recently were comparatively free from subterranean 
insect enemies, but there are two forms of common farm pests, white 
grubs and wire worms, that affect underground portions of the plants 
and occasionalh" injure them; in addition to these, some kinds of root- 
lice and mealy-bugs injure the roots by suction, rendering them small 
'^The species mentioned is the zebra caterpillar {Mamestra picta). Kept. Ins. Mass. 
Inj.to Veg., p. 328. 
^ Caradrina exigua. f Silpha opaca. 
(^ Loxostege sticticalh. Q Pemphigus hetiv. 
(I Pegomya incina. ^ Cassida nebidosd. 
^ Disonycha xantliomelxiia, i Monoxia puncticoll'is ami J/, cotisputa. 
