Color Marking of the Striped Cucumber Beetle (Diabrotica Vittata Fab.) and Preliminary Experiments to Determine its Flight

Abstract

The wide spread depredations of the striped cucumber beetle, including both its feeding injuries and its role in the transmission of bacterial wilt and mosaic of the cucurbits, have been estimated to damage the crop to the extent of $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 a year in the United States. Many of the recognized control measures in the past have been of little or no value in killing the beetle, and their virtue as repellents has depended upon repeated applications to the growing crops because the beetles are constantly flying from field to field. This project was undertaken to find the limits of the powers of flight of the beetle and its g'l'l1t'ral habits as to flight. After experiments with various dyes and coloring substances covering a period of three years, the most successful material for marking has been found to be six parts, by volume, of denatured alcohol (denatured with methyl alcohol), four parts of commercial, cut shellac, the mixture colored with a saturated solution of various anline dyes in alcohol. This material may be sprayed on the beetles with an atomizer. It dries quickly; adheres well to the body of the insect; retains its color indefinitely; and does not appear to interfere in anyway with the normal functions of the insect. During the summer of 1922 three lots of beetles totaling 25,786 individuals, were marked and released. Of these, 49 were recovered after an average interval of 4½ days. They flew an average distance of one-half mile, five flying over a mile each. This project is to be continued during the season of 1923.