Bulletin 151, Truck and Garden Insects


to plant enough for both bugs and planter and, by good cultural
methods, to keep the vines in such vigorous growing condition
that they will bear peas in spite of the bugs. In a garden, on a
particularly valuable patch of cowpeas, or on such valuable
crops as beans, tomatoes, potatoes, etc., hand-picking will pay
well. For this purpose take a pan or other wide-mouthed dish,
pour into it an inch or less of water and on this a film of
kerosene. In the early morning or on a cold rainy day when
the bugs are sluggish, walk along the rows and knock the bugs
into the pan. This is not as slow a process as it may seem at
first. An active boy can collect most of the bugs from an acre
of beans or several acres of potatoes in an hour.
 The smaller but closely related Nezara hilaris does about the
same character of damage, but is comparatively rare in Florida.
 SERPENTINE LEAF-MINER (Agromyza pusilla)
 This is a near relative of the corn-leaf blotch-miner. (See
under corn, page 158.) Like that species, the larva works in
the central tissue of the leaf, but its burrow .- long and nar-
row, with many bends, hence the name serpentine. It is plenti-
ful in many wild plants, especially such legumes as beggarweed
and coffeeweed, and it is common in cowpeas. Its life history
is similar to that of the corn-leaf blotch-miner and may like-
wise work all winter in the southern part of the State. The
greatest damage is done to the first two leaves cotyledonss) of
very young seedlings before the true leaves are put out. Both
of these leaf-miners have numerous parasitic enemies which
generally keep them under fair control.
 GARDEN FLEA-HOPPER (Halticus uhleri)
 This is a minute black plant-bug (fig. 88) that attacks the
leaves of cowpeas, beggarweed, peppers, and a great variety of









 d
FIG. 88.-Garden flea-hopper: a, ShoIt-winged female; b, full-winged female;
 c, male; d, head of male in outline. Eight times natural size. (From U. S.
 Bur. of Ent.)