Bulletin 151, Truck and Garden Insects


plant-bug in Florida, being more than an inch long. Like the
other plant-bugs, these use for food the juices of succulent,
 quickly-growing plants. The potato is a
 favorite. It is not only very succulent, but
 its large stems furnish sufficient support
 for these heavy bugs. The insects usually
 settle 3 or 4 inches below the top and the
 withdrawal of sap causes the tip of the
 plant to wilt, markedly. If the attack is
 persistent the top will die. It is probable
 that the damage this bug, as well as the
 other plant-bugs, inflicts is not due entirely
Fia. 100.-Big-footed to the loss of sap. They may inject a
 plant-bug. Natural poison into the puncture.
 size. (Original.)
 Control.-These insects are so large
and their effects on the plant so conspicuous that collecting by
hand is an easy matter. The wilted tops show the location of
thebugs. Twoor three collections during the season usuallysuffice.
 This bug is particularly abundant in the early spring on
thistles. These weeds should be cut down when around the
margin of truck fields. For a trap crop see page 205.
 LEAF-FOOTED PLANT-BUG (Leptoglossus phyllopus)
 This bug attacks the great majority of truck and garden
crops, but potatoes, beans, cowpeas, and tomatoes are favorites.
It is not as large as the big-footed
plant-bug, but makes up in numbers
what it lacks in size. Next to the
pumpkin bug it is the most common of
the larger plant-bugs. It also attacks
citrus. It is readily recognized bythe yel-
low line running across the wing covers
and the peculiar expansion of its hind
tibiae which suggest its name (fig. 101).
 Control measures are the same as
 those for the pumpkin bug (see under
 cowpeas, page 161).
 MAY-BEETLES, OR WHITE GRUBS
 (Lachnosterna sp.) FIG. 101.-Leaf-footed plant-
 These large fleshy-white grubs (fig. br Epar. gd. rBlom F1a.
 102) which are so injurious to grass
 lands do some damage to potatoes when planted on land that
 was previously in grass by eating the tubers. They do not