SUGAR-BEET INSECTS. The recent intro duction and rapid spread of the sugar beet have resulted in the attacks of several insects not be fore known as injurious and have given a new food to others. A leaf-miller (Pegomyia dieina), 30 or 40 larvae of which may be found in a single leaf, has produced serious damage in California. lany leaf-hoppers (q.v.) feed upon the leaves; also several plant and leaf bugs, and plant-lice. notably the common melon aphis (Aphis gos sipii). Various cutworms (q.v.) are trouble some while the beets are young. Considerable damage has been done by the greenhouse leaf roller (Phlyetcrnia ferrugalis). The so-called garden webworms, however, especially in the West. have done the greatest damage of all. Cer tain leaf-beetles injure the leaves, and the of some of them feed upon the roots. Much damage has been done by grasshoppers, non-mi gratory locusts, and blister beetles (q.v.), the
imbricated snout beetle, and the army worm (q.v.). Toward the close of the last century the so-ealled beet army worm (Laphyyma Ilarimaculata) defoliated thousands of acres of sugar beets in Colorado. The purslane cater pillar (Copidryas Gloreri), the purslane sphinx (De/b.-phi/a lineata), and several of the woolly bear caterpillars also feed upon the leaves. Great damage has been done in the State of Washing ton by a root-louse known as the beet aphis (Pemphigas betcr), and a root mealy-bug has been found on the crown of the plant in Colo rado. Several of the wireworms (q.v.) and white grubs (q.v.) also damage the roots.
Consult: Forbes. Twenty-first Annual Report State Entomologist of Illinois (Chicago. 1900) ; Forbes and Hart, Bulletin Yo. 60 Illinois .1 9r/ cultural Experiment Station (Urbana, 1900).