~ 57 ^~ 
through May 3 • The emergence in cages was, for the most part, earlier and 
faster than the.t in nature, probably because cage covers produced abnormal con- 
ditions. The average survival in 30 cages was 12. 28 percent, whereas similar 
studies in cages covered with heavier cloth in 19 3^ — 39 showed a survival of 
percent. The tobacco flea beetle was not as abundant as normal on small 
plant-bed plants. A brood of beetles emerged in plant beds around June. IQ but 
this emergence was too late to seriously affect the crop because transplanting 
was completed prior to that time. Where the beetles were permitted to remain 
undisturbed in the plant beds many plants were severely injured. The tobacco 
flea beetle was of less importance to field plants than in any year since 1936 . 
Control measures were necessary at only 2 periods during the season. The first 
period was soon alter the plants had been transplanted and the second period 
was during the latter part of July. Infesta.tions were scattered and the 
beetles did not occur in outbreak numbers; however, a control experiment wa.s 
conducted in a field of late tobacco, where the average number of beetles was 
73 P© r plant. 
Plea beetles (E. parvula ) were less abundant in the Florida-Georgin. tobacco 
districts than for several years. Relatively few applications of insecticides 
were needed to exert commercial control. The toba.cco flea beetle caused moder- 
ate damage in an occasional plant bed, but the injury was much less than in an 
average year. Field injury was moderately severe, insofar as the lower leaves 
of tobacco were concerned, but, so far as is known, it was not necessary to use 
control measures in the dark fire-cured area of Tennessee. 
POTATO FLEA BEETLE 
Probably because of the extremely cold winter and the prolonged period 
of cold and rain in the spring and early summer, the potato flea, beetle ( Epi- 
trix cucumcris Harr.) was relatively scarce in tobacco fields of the Connecti- 
cut River Valley until the first week in July, This is usually the approximate 
date of the beginning of second-brood emergence. In 194-0 the beetles did not 
reach normal abundance until just before the later harvest in the first weeks 
of August. Thereafter they disappeared rapidly* ■ 
VEGETABLE WEEVIL 
The vegetable weevil, which first attacked tobonco plants in the seedbeds 
at Quincy, Fla., in 1937? has continued to infest the beds each season. The 
infestation in 194-0 was of moderate intensity but the larvae were sufficiently 
abundant to require control remedies in numerous instances. (F. S. Chamberlin, 
Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, U. S, P. A.) 
Larvae of the vegetable weevil were found feeding on small tobacco plants 
in plant beds in Florence County, S, C., on April 2. Later, adults and larvae 
were collected in plant beds and a number of the larvae produced adults* This 
was the first known occurrence of this pest on flue-cured tobacco. (IT. Allen, 
Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, U, S. D. A.) 
