Florida Agricultural Experiment Station


the field, entering near the stem. It is particular destructive
in pits where sweet potatoes are stored. Not only do the adult
beetles mine the roots, but they breed there, and the white.
soft-bodied, maggot-like grubs continue the destruction.
 The adult beetle is about 1/ of an inch long. The abdomen
is cylindrical in shape and shining blue. The thorax, head, and
legs are brown, and the long beak which is held out straight in
front is black. The thorax is small and the legs long, giving to
this pretty beetle a superficial resemblance to an ant; hence the
name formicarius.
 Control.-All infested potatoes should be sorted out at once
and fed to stock. Hogs should be turned into the field after
the potatoes are dug to clean up all refuse of the crop. Where
this has been thoroly done the pest has been almost extermi-
nated.
 OTHER SWEET POTATO PESTS
 Other insects which attack sweet potatoes are: Bean-
jassid (see under beans, page 51) ; grasshoppers (see under
general garden pests, page 44); and large carrot-beetle (see
May-beetles under potatoes, page 100).

 TOMATOES
 BOLLWORM OR TOMATO FRUIT-WORM (Heliothis obsoleta)
 This insect is the most serious pest of the tomato in Flor-
ida. It is the same species that is so frequently found in the
ears of corn, particularly sweet corn. It is then known as the
" corn ear-worm." It also attacks green peas, beans, and other
plants, and is particularly destructive to cotton, being then
known as the bollworm. The last generation of the season,
during September and October, feeds largely upon the seeds of
beggarweed. For an illustration of this insect and its life his-
tory, see corn and okra insects, pages 73 and 93.
 The tomato is most severely attacked in the spring and
early summer. The eggs are laid on the leaves. The young
larvae feed there for a day or so, but soon migrate to the stems,
into which they bore. They are prone to wander, however,
and the young tomatoes, as soon as they are set, are attacked
by the caterpillars which entirely desert the stems. Here, as
on other food plants, they bore into the fruit and mine the in-
side. Again their restless habits come into play, for, instead of
confining themselves to one fruit until it is consumed, they will
desert the first to attack a fresh one, which in turn is eaten