JOURNAL OF AGRIQILTURAL RESEARCH 
Yol. XXIX Washington, D. C., December 15, 1924 No. 12 
LIFE-HISTORY STUDIES OF THE TOBACCO FLEA-BEETLE 
IN THE SOUTHERN CIGAR-WRAPPER DISTRICT 1 
By F. S. Chamberlin, Assistant Entomologist, and J. N. Tenhet, Junior 
Entomologist, Southern Field Crop Insect' Investigations, Bureau of 1 Entomology; 
technical description of the larva by Adam G. Boving, Entomologist, Bureau of 
Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture 
INTRODUCTION 
The tobacco flea-beetle 2 has been 
recognized for many years as a serious 
tobacco pest, especially in the trop¬ 
ical and semitropical tobacco-growing 
regions. Experiments and observa¬ 
tions bearing on the control of this 
pest were carried on by the Bureau of 
Entomology at Quincy, Fla., from 1918 
to 1923 ( 2). z In connection with this 
work a detailed life-history study in 
the southern cigar-wrapper district 4 
was undertaken in 1920 and continued 
through 1923. 
While a number of writers have dis¬ 
cussed the life history of this insect, 
especially Chittenden (3, If), Howard 
(5), Morgan ( 9 ), and Metcalf (7, 8), 
until the present time no detailed life- 
history records have been published. 
REARING METHODS 
Various means for obtaining eggs 
were tested during the course of this 
investigation. The method employed 
by Johannsen ( 6) in obtaining eggs of 
the potato flea-beetle was found to be 
the most satisfactory. The beetles are 
enclosed in a lantern globe, which is 
covered at each end with organdy and 
set in a vertical position over a flower¬ 
pot. The globe is placed upon a piece 
of black blotting paper kept damp by 
contact with moist earth in the flower¬ 
pot. The beetles thrust their oviposi¬ 
tors through the cloth and deposit their 
eggs on the paper, where they can be 
easily seen. In using this method it 
was found that a certain number of 
eggs invariably adhered to the meshes 
of the cloth. A count of the eggs was 
most easily obtained by using a dark- 
colored organdy on the end of the globe 
in contact with the paper. 
To obtain incubation records, the 
deposition cages were placed on end in 
direct contact with firmed, moist soil 
contained in tin salve boxes, and the 
eggs were deposited directly on the 
surface of the soil. The larvae were 
reared in these boxes of earth over 
which large salve boxes were inverted. 
Food was supplied the larvae by 
placing sprouted tobacco seed on the 
surface of the earth. The moisture 
content of the earth was kept as uni¬ 
form as possible by the occasional 
addition of a few drops of water. 
Pupal records were most easily 
obtained by placing a piece of dark 
blotting paper over the earth in the 
boxes about the time that the larvae 
reached maturity. The pupal cells 
were formed in the earth directly 
beneath the blotting paper, where they 
could be easily observed. Although 
this work was performed on the labora¬ 
tory porch, it was found that the soil 
temperature under these artificial con¬ 
ditions varied but slightly from the 
temperature of the soil beneath tobacco 
plants in the field, where the tobacco 
flea-beetle larvae and pupae normally 
exist. 
DESCRIPTION OF STAGES 
THE EGG 
The egg (fig. 1) is elongate oval, slightly more 
pointed at one end, 0.362 to 0.483 mm. in length and 
0.164 to 0.259 mm. in diameter, translucent and 
pearly white, gradually assuming a faint lemon- 
colored tinge as it grows older. Under the com¬ 
pound microscope the chorion apparently shows a 
slight but distinct reticiflation. 
THE LARVA 
Mature larva. —Larva delicate, threadlike, 
measuring about 3 mm. Color white, except on 
the chitinized parts, which are light brown; head 
capsule with dark margins and end of ninth abdom¬ 
inal segment blackish brown. Head small, 
1 Received for publication April 22, 1924—issued March, 1925. 
2 Epitrixparvula Fab.; order Coleopetra, family Chrysomelidae. 
3 Reference is made by number (italic) to “Literature cited,” p. 584. 
* Northern Florida and southern Georgia. 
Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. XXIX, No. 12 
Washington, D. C. Dec. 15, 1924 
Key No. K-140 
7582—251-1 
575 
