Jime, M8] 
311 
SEVERIN AND THOMAS: BEET LEAFHOPPER 
tria, Brawley, Imperial, Dixieland, Seeley, El Centro and Holtville 
(Map) rarely failed to capture from one to fifteen adults. In taking 
the trip by stage to the various towns mentioned, the Australian salt 
bush was observed growing along irrigation ditches, roadsides, railroad 
tracks, fences and vacant fields. Several hundred specimens were cap¬ 
tured on a half dozen patches of this Atriplex and yet day after day 
when these same plants were swept with an insect net, more and more 
bugs were obtained. In all probability, many millions of beet leaf- 
hoppers occur on this plant in the Imperial Valley. 
Specimens of the Australian salt bush in the University of California 
herbarium show that the plant occurs in the following counties of 
California: Nevada, San Mateo, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and 
San Diego. In Orange County, three miles northeast of Huntington 
Beach, forty-two E. tenella were captured on Australian salt bush on 
January 21. A few specimens were also caught on Malva parviflora 
and Chenopodium murale. Several old beets showing curly-leaf were 
found in the same vicinity, although this disease has never been re¬ 
ported from Orange County on the authority of Professor R. E. Smith. 
Hibernation. In the Imperial Valley the beet leaf hopper cannot 
strictly be said to hibernate, understanding by that term the passing 
of the winter in a greater or less degree of torpor, without food. During 
the winter few specimens were captured during the early morning 
hours due to the sluggishness of the insects produced by the cold nights; 
also on cloudy days but few bugs were taken. That the adult hoppers 
do not undergo a fast during the winter is shown by the following 
experiments: On February 24, at 6 p. m., ten E. tenella were placed 
without food in a cage with top and sides made of sheer muslin. All 
died within lj days under field conditions at a maximum temperature 
of 86° F. and a minimum temperature of 42° F. This experiment was 
repeated, but the insects were placed in a cage without food at 8 a. m. 
Six died within ten hours and all were dead at the end of one day 
(maximum temperature, 84° F.; minimum temperature, 36° F.). In a 
similar experiment, ten specimens placed in a cage without food at 8 
a. m. died within lj days (maximum temperature, 84° F.; minimum 
temperature, 34° F.). 
Besides the plants already mentioned in this paper, E. tenella was 
captured on the foliage of the following plants in various localities in 
Imperial County: 
Quail brush (. Atriplex lentiformis), 3 miles south of Imperial, January 23, 1918. 
Cattle spinach (A. polycarpa), 2 miles east of Dixieland, March 14, 1918. 
Shad scale ( A . canescens ), Holtville, January 23; Niland, March 15, 1918. 
Alkali blite (Suosda moquini), Niland, March 15; Dixieland, March 13, 1918. 
Bermuda grass ( Cynodon dactylon ), 2 miles south of Imperial, January 23, 1918. 
