Bulletin 151, Truck and Garden Insects


ful if the attacks of the insect in Florida fields are sufficiently
common to make this precaution profitable except in the case
of some particularly valuable plants.
 HARLEQUIN CABBAGE-BUG OR CALICO-BACK
 (Murgantia histronica)
 This strikingly-colored insect, a native of the Mexican re-
gion, has been slowly working its way eastward and northward.
It is not as yet abundant in Cy
Florida but may be seen occa-
sionally on late cabbage and is
quite common and destructive to
collards that are carried thru d "
the summer.
 The adult (fig. 76, g) is
black and orange and is 2/5 of
an inch long. Both the adult
and young suck the juices of the FIG. 7.-Harlequin cabge-bug: a,
plants into which they inject a b, Nymphs; d, e, eggs, greatly en-
 larged; f, g, adults. Slightly en-
poison. A few bugs are suffi- large. (From U. S. Bur. of Ent.)
cient to cause a plant to turn yellow and die.
 The eggs (fig. 76, c, d, e) are deposited on the under side
of the leaves, usually in two rows. They are keg-shaped, white,
 with black bands and a small
 black spot on each side, increas-
 ing the resemblance to a keg
 with its hoops and bung-hole.
 They hatch in 3 or 4 days. The
 young are at first yellow, devel-
 oping the orange markings later.
 They are usually present in
 such number as to make hand
 collecting practical, but hand
FIG. 77.-Cabbage hair-worm or cab- collecting of the young is less
 bage snake. (From U. S. Bur. of Ent.)
 satisfactory because of their
small size. Should these become abundant they can be killed
by kerosene emulsion. Destroy all infested, dying plants. in
the northern part of the State a crop of late cabbage can be
partly protected by planting an early trap crop of mustard,
radishes or turnips. When this trap crop becomes infested
it may be sprayed with kerosene emulsion or pulled up and
burned.