500 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
STRIPED FLEA-BEETLE. ON FLOWERS. ON MUSTARD. 
and the parenchyma, whereby a wide space upon the border be¬ 
comes excoriated. And in August, after the cabbages are headed, 
scores of these beetles are to be seen upon nearly all the large, 
loose outer leaves, which are freckled all over with whitish dots 
from their bites, causing them to turn yellow and perish. 
The radish is the earliest vegetable, common in our gardens, 
which the striped flea-beetle infests. It no sooner appears above 
ground, with its small tender leaves beginning to put forth from 
between the two seed leaves, about the middle of May, than the 
beetle makes its appearance upon it, and the leaves soon become 
thickly freckled with the wounds the insect makes, hereby greatly 
retarding the plants in their growth. 
They fall upon the leaves of the turnip, also, as soon as they 
begin to put forth, two or three crowding themselves together fre¬ 
quently upon one small leaf, and eating it full of holes. 
To those much admired flowering plants, which every amateur 
florist strives to raise in the greatest perfection, the Brompton and 
Ten Weeks Stock (Mathiola annua), these flea-beetles are tho 
greatest of pests, riddling the leaves of the young plants with 
holes, thus stunting them in their growth and rendering them puny 
and dwarfish, and utterly ruining them if the insects aro allowed 
to continue unchecked in their depredations. 
They equally molest the pretty Virginia Stock (CaJeile man- 
tima), which is so much prized for the profusion of its bright 
little flowers, not only eating the leaves but also, whenever a 
flower puts out, one or two of these beetles are apt to immediately 
locate themselves upon it. feeding upon the delicate petals, and 
thus destroying all the beauty of the blossoms unless carois taken 
to keep them expelled from the plants. 
The rocket, candytuft, and all other cultivated flowers which 
pertain to the order Cruciferm are more or less attractive to these 
flea-beetles. 
But the plant of all others of which they are most fond, is cer¬ 
tainly tho mustard (Sinapis nigra). Wherever a weed of this 
starts up in the garden, it will be seen sprinkled over with these 
striped flea-beetles in much greater profusion than any other plant. 
Its leaves are so thin that tho beetles in feeding gnaw entirely 
through them, whereby, so early as tho middle of June, the mus¬ 
tard leaves are everywhere found riddled with holes. A hungry 
beetle continues to cat the leaf until he makes a hole an eighth o i 
