A series of experiments was undertaken to examine the relative concentration of cotton flea-beetles (Podagrica puncticollis Weise and P. pallida (Jacoby), Halticinae) within cotton fields in the Sudan Gezira in 1954 and 1955. Assessments were carried out on the flea-beetle populations and on the damage done by them, and evidence is produced to show that the use of a damage assessment in the first three weeks of the life of the cotton plant is more satisfactory in a large-scale experiment than beetle counts. The assessment lasted for between three and four weeks after the emergence of the seedling cotton.

It appeared that the beetles tended to leave cotton 19 days after sowing. Damage within the cotton field was at first in accord with the sowing differential, but then shifted against this as the flea-beetles moved on to the later-sown cotton as this became more attractive.

The peak population of flea-beetles occurred during the last few days of August and the first few of September when the first-sown cotton was 14–18 days old, and this suffered more damage than the later-sown and less attractive cotton. Differences in the level of attack on the four sowings tended to even out, but did not do so completely as the flea-beetle population was declining.