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BULLETIN No. 23—New SERIES. - zs.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
| DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY. a

SOME INSECTS

INJURLOUS TO GARDEN CROPS

A SERIES OF ARTICLES DEALING WITH INSECTS
: QF THIS CLASS. 3

PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST,
BY

2 Se ee DE
ASSISTANT ENTOMOLOGIST.

W ASHINGTON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
. 19009.

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BULLETIN No. 23—NEwW SERIES.

Sa EPAKT MENT OF AGRICULTURE,
DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY.

SOME INSECTS

INJURIOUS TO GARDEN CROPS.

A SERIES OF ARTICLES DEALING WITH INSECTS
QF THIS CLASS. |

PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST,

BY

ee elt ne eb odn ete eo ING 1) EIN
ASSISTANT ENTOMOLOGIST.

WASHINGTON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
1900.

————

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ee
———————

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

U. S. DEPARTMENT oF AGRICULTURE,
Drvision oF ENTOMOLOGY,
Washington, D. C., February 17, 1900.

Str: I have the honor to transmit herewith a manuscript containing
a series of articles dealing with the subject of insects injurious to gar-
den crops, prepared by Mr. F. H. Chittenden, of this Division. Similar
articles, by the same writer, have been published from time to time in
Bulletins Nos. 10 and 19, new series, of this Division, also in various
circulars, and in the Yearbooks of the Department for 1896 and 1898.
The general subject has been under investigation for several years
with the plan of publishing, ultimately, a complete volume on the
garden insects of the United States for the practical use of truck
farmers and gardeners. The articles which have been published and
these which are presented have been prepared (where not prelimi-
nary or supplementary to more complete accounts) in detail, giving
the complete history, as far as is known, of each species treated, a work
which involves a great amount of original study, and which is pub-
lished in full as a matter of record and for the use of working economic
entomologists as well as of farmers. It is planned, however, in the
completed report to condense all of this matter into an easily under-
stood and practical working form. I recommend the publication of
this group of articles as Bulletin No. 23, new series, of this Division.

Respectfully,
L. O. Howarp,
Entomologist.

Hon. JAMES WILson,

Secretary of Agriculture.

2

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CONTENTS.

ASEH rte con ee enced Ss a is cede a wa ap eo see eee
A New VINE-BoRER OF Lima Beans (Monoptilota nubilella Hulst.) (illustrated) -
THE SMALLER Corn STALK-BORER (L’lasmopalpus lignosellus Zell.) (illustrated) -
THE PALE-STRIPED FLEA-BEETLE (Systena blanda Mels.) (illustrated) ....-..---
OBSERVATIONS ON THE BEAN LEAF-BEETLE (Cerotoma trifurcata Forst.) .....----
Notes ON THE IMBRICATED SNOUT-BEETLE (Epicerus imbricatus Say) (illustrated)
A New Trxaitip on BEAN (Gargaphia angulata Heid.) (illustrated) ......-..--
THe Desrructive GREEN Pra Louse (Nectarophora destructor Johns.) (illus-

(ETERS) Ses ep pai PON aE Nr iy ge Ne etn NGS s a Heo et
A Nore on THE Mexican Bran WeEEvIL (Spermophagus pectoralis Shp.) (illus-

ETUC Gl) pete eee mie Pa Mea e ey et Bere he hcie Moe Se NG Alia sae ee
Tue CaBBaGcE Curcuiio (Ceutorhynchus rapex Gyll ) (illustrated) ........--.---
REMARKS ON THE Foop Hasits or SPECIES OF CEUTORHYNCHUS...--.-..-------
ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE IMPORTED CABBAGE WEBWORM ( Hellula undalis Fab.)

fulitticinbe Ci emeraa ween en SS eae ee Soe a ee eee
THE ComMon RHUBARB CurcULIO (Lixus concavus Say) (illustrated)
THE STRAWBERRY FLEA-BEETLE (/faltica ignita Il.) (illustrated) ....-.--------
Tue Fatt Army Worm In 1899 (Laphygma frugiperda 8. & A.) (illustrated) - - - -
THE STRAWBERRY Crown Mora (Sesia rutilans Hy. Edw.) (illustrated)
THE BLAcK GOosEBERRY Borer (Xylocrius agassizii Lec.) (illustrated)

78

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ILLUSTRATIONS.

Monoptilota nubilella, moth, larva, cocoon, and gall.......--...-.-..-

. Elasmopalpus lignosellus, antennee and mouth-parts of sexes __.......-
. Elasmopalpus lignosellus, moth, larva, and cocoon...--....-----------
. Corn stalk showing work of the smaller corn stalk-borer -_....--.---
= oystend.olanda, larva. adult-and= eees ss Sete
Syston tamiota, dank Vanichy. sec =< ee ee

Epicxerus imbricatus, beetle attacked by fungus.-.............-.--.-

SGOrgaphia<anoulata,agult sxe Sas ee See ee
. Nectarophora destructor, winged and apterous female and nymph...--
. Spermophagus pectoralis, female and infested seed ..-_..--.---..-----
- Work of Ceutorhynchus rapz im young cabbage=- “2-2 = s =
. Ceutorhynchus rapx, beetle, larva, and pupa in cocoon.-.-----..------
. Hellula undalis, wing venation, head and antenna.--...--.---.-----
. Stalk of rhubarb injured by Livus concavus..........-.-------------
= elnatszconcavus, beetle, eco. larva. and: pupae. sen eae eee
. Stalk and leaf of rhubarb showing attack of Inxus concavus.---.-- poo
. Haltica igmita, beetle, egg mass, larva, and pupa --.---.------------
. Haltica ignita, first and second abdominal, and anal segments. ------
_Laphygma frugiperda, moth larva,-and pupae ss. ae eee
. Sesia rutilans, female and male moths, larva, pupa, and-pupa shell. - -
- Agylocrius agassizn, beetle, larva..and. pulpaes) === ee
22.
. Gooseberry stem showing larva of Xylocrius agassizii......---------

Gooseberry stem infested by Xylocrius agassizii.......--------------

4

PREFACE.

The series of articles here presented in bulletin form under the title
‘* Some insects injurious to garden crops,” is in continuation of work
done by the writer in previous years on the same subject, the results
of which have been announced in different publications of this Depart-
ment, and are for the most part based upon observations which have
been made during the year 1899, although many of the species treated
were under more or less continuous observation prior to that time.

Some of the species of insects which are considered are more or
less spasmodic or sporadic in the nature of their attack and imjurious
only in seasons which have been unusually favorable to their increase.
A certain proportion of these are for this reason of secondary impor-
tance, economically speaking, since in ordinary years of comparative
scarcity they find nutriment sufficient for their needs in various wild
plants and weeds, being driven to attack cultivated or other useful
plants only in their seasons of greatest abundance. Some few of
these are as yet comparatively little known, having done no material
damage, but several are increasing in noxiousness and those which
have never assumed great. importance are liable to become so at any
time, at least periodically or locally. Certain of the species under
consideration, however, are of the highest economic importance when
they occur in excessive numbers, and two of these, the destructive
green pea louse and the fall army worm, have been among the most
troublesome pests of the past year.

As in the case of previous general articles on insects affecting garden
and orchard crops, the writer has endeavored to treat each species in
all its relations, descriptive, historical, biologic, and economic. An
effort has also been made to furnish not alone lists of exact localities
in which each species has been captured or observed at work, but to
define as nearly as possible from these data its geographic range,
whether an inhabitant of this or that life area, and whether the natural
range has been extended by a corresponding increase in the cultivation
of its food plants and by commerce.

A series of investigations on certain species of insects which attack
cruciferous and cucurbit crops was planned for the season, but was
necessarily postponed on account of the scarcity of the insects them-

5

6

selves, due in great part to atmospheric conditions during the winter of
1898-99, which materially interfered with their hibernation, as already
explained in an article by the writer in Bulletin No. 22, pages 51-64.
A few cruciferous pests, however, came under observation, and two
species were given special study.

Observations on insects which affect beans and peas have been con.
tinued, a considerable number of the species here treated being known
to attack edible leguminous plants.

One of the most interesting insects of the year from the naturalist’s
standpoint is a gall-forming vine-borer affecting Lima beans, a species
as yet not seriously injurious but capable of considerable injury should
conditions favor a further increase in its numbers. It was unknown
to science at the time its study was begun. © The same is true of a small
Tingitid bug affecting beans in Alabama and the plant-louse previously
mentioned, which has been seriously injurious to peas over a wide
extent of the eastern United States, Nova Scotia, and Canada, and
which has been considered in Bulletin No. 20, pp. 94-99, and elsewhere.
These three species were described by Messrs. G. D. Hulst, Otto
Heidemann, and W. G. Johnson, respectively, within a few weeks of
the completion of the manuscript of this bulletin.

Among other bean- and pea-feeding insects which have come under
observation are the smaller corn stalk-borer, which had nct been known
as troublesome since the first report of its injuries in 1881, and the
Mexican bean weevil.

The pale-striped flea-beetle, a well known pest in the central portion
of this country from New Jersey to Colorado and New Mexico, has
been studied, and some new facts in its life history have been gained.
This species is one that has not hitherto received special attention in
previous publications of this Division, which is also true of several
other insects mentioned in this bulletin. ;

Among cruciferous pests of the year the cabbage curculio and the
imported cabbage webworm were conspicuous, and the former, though
not so injurious as in certain previous years, occurred in numbers sufli-
cient to afford a good opportunity for its study. Considerable has
been added to our previous knowledge of the webworm, which has
already caused serious injury in the Gulf region, and is evidently destined
to become one of the most serious pests of the Southern States, and as
troublesome in time to the truck grower as are the harlequin bug and
cabbage worms at the present time. 3

Considerable attention has been given to the strawberry flea-beetle
and the common rhubarb curculio, and rather full accounts of both
‘species are furnished. Some new facts in the life history of the bean
leaf-beetle and imbricated snout-beetle have been ascertained which
add somewhat toward a complete knowledge of these insects.

Prominent among insect pests of the year 1899, and perhaps as

{3

troublesome as any insect of the season, if we take the number of crops
and the area of territory affected into consideration, was the fall army
worm. Although properly a field crop insect, it does great damage in
vegetable gardens in exceptional seasons like the past, and as at such
times it affects a great number of garden crops, it may, for conven-
lence, be appropriately consideréd, with regard to recent injury, in
the present bulletin.

A departure has been made in presenting general accounts of a few
species of insects which have not been under personal observation
as regards their life history, habits and development. The principal of
these are the strawberry crown moth and the black gooseberry borer,
both pests of the Pacific States, and restricted to that region.

For bibliographical purposes it should be stated that, as in the writer’s
previous bulletins, Nos. 8 and 19, the comprehensive title used for the
present publication is assumed as a matter of convenience, and that
each article is in a manner complete of itself, having no especial bear-
ing on either that which precedes or follows it, and hence each article
should be properly indexed separately.

In conclusion the writer desires to thank those who have cooperated
with him in completing the accounts here presented, and desires to
acknowledge with gratitude the kindness of his official colleagues and
correspondents of this Division for favors which will be duly men-
tioned in their appropriate places.

Of the illustrations here used 16 are original, and of these all except
figure 8, which was drawn by Mr. Heidemann, were prepared from
drawings made by Miss Sullivan from selected fresh material and under
the writer’s personal supervision. )

Betis:

SOME INSECTS INJURIOUS TO GARDEN CROPS.

A NEW VINE-BORER OF LIMA BEANS.
(Monoptilota nubilella Hulst.)
BORERS IN THE STALK OF BEANS.

Until the appearance of a short note by Dr. A. D. Hopkins and
Mr. W. E. Rumsey in Bulletin 44 of the West Virginia Agricultural
Experiment Station, published in April, 1896 (p. 303), no boring
insect, as far as the writer is aware, was known to infest the stalk or
vines of the bean plant. The note in question mentions, under the head-
ing ‘‘ The bean-vine borer,” that this was a new pest, and was observed
in Wood County, W. Va., in July, 1893, where considerable damage
was done, attention having been called to this form of injury by Mrs.
Bradford Neal. The larva was described as a whitish worm, about an
inch long and resembling very closely the well-known squash-vine
borer (Welittia satyriniformis). The attack was upon pole Lima-bean
Vines, usually at a point two or three feet above ground. The moth
was not reared, hence the species of insect was not identified.

In the fall of 1898 the writer noticed numerous large gall-like swell-
ings upon Lima beans growing in Maryland near the District of
Columbia line. The following season material was obtained for
study and illustration, and the species was reared to the adult. Dur-
ing this same year Prof. F. S. Earle, of Auburn, Ala., sent specimens
of the larve of borers in beans, one sending being made in June and
another in August. From the first only a single male moth was ob-
tained, and the second sending was an entirely different species of
insect, the smaller corn stalk-borer (4lasmopalpus lignosellus). To
the best of the writer’s knowledge, neither of these two species of
borer has been identified with injury to the bean plant until the
present time.

Of the first sending received from Auburn, Ala., a larvaissued en route,
being near maturity at the date of its receipt, June 15. The moth
developed July 7. Larve were not abundant at the time of writing.

A peculiarity in regard to the noticed appearance of this species in
its more northern range is that it could not be found in any other
locality visited, not even in gardens within from one to three miles
of the place where attack was first noticed. In short, infestation

9

10

could be detected only in this one garden and only to pole Lima beans.
Dwarf Limas, wax and navy beans in the immediate vicinity as else-
where were not troubled.

NATURE OF ATTACK OBSERVED IN MARYLAND.

During November, 1898, vines of Lima beans growing in a garden
in the vicinity of Cabin John Bridge, Maryland, were noticed with
numerous large gall-like swellings upon them, the swellings being
particularly evident where the vines were eroded and the injury
accentuated by rubbing against a high lattice fence upon which they
grew. Unfortunately it was too late that season to identify the insect
which caused this damage, as all the plants were dead and dry and the
insects had long since deserted their early homes. The injury bore
some resemblance to that caused by the well-known stalk borer,
Gortyna nitela Gn., which attacks a great variety of plants. The
Ane as these swellings may be called, are auate ae in some cases,

occur in es yee as in this. instance ae cause coneideralip
drain upon the vitality of the plant which eae a corresponding effect
upon the production of seeds or beans.

A lookout was kept the following summer for an early attack of the
same species, but unfortunately only a small planting of Lima beans
was made in the infested garden, and no vines were planted along the
fence. Judging by the number of galls seen in 1898, it seems probable
that an immense number of the larvee came to maturity that year, but
there were comparatively few plants infested the following year.

Of the moths reared, the single male from Alabama and a female
from Maryland were referred to Rey. George D. Hulst, of Brooklyn,

N. Y., a specialist in the Phycitide, who determined them as of one

species representing a new genus and a form as yet undescribed, to
which he had given the manuscript name of donoptilota nubilella.
Owing to the unipectinate structure of the antennee of the male (unique
with the genus Ceara of Ragonot) the writer was at first in doubt as to
the identity of the two sexes as one species, but this matter 1s now set
at rest. As to the position of the genus, Dr. Hulst says that taking
into account the most of its apparent affinities it may be placed after
Phycitopsis and before Dioryctria, this position seeming to be indi-
cated in some measure by Ragonot’s Monograph.
The species may be known as the Lima-bean vine-borer.

THE SPECIES DESCRIBED.

The following description has been kindly furnished by Dr. Hulst,
and although it has also appeared in the Canadian Entomologist of
January, 1900 (Vol. XXXII, pp. 18, 14), it is deemed advisable to
publish it entire here in connection with the illustrations. For the

jel

benefit of those who have not given special study to the Microlepidop-
tera it should be said that of well-known moths this species bears a
superficial resemblance to the genus Ephestia, which includes the Medi-
terranean flour moth and the still commoner though less troublesome
dried-currant moth. It has, however, a more robust body; both pairs
of wings are darker, the hinder ones more noticeably so and the pat-
tern of the fore-wings is less distinct. The head is considerably larger
and the male antennz alone, as previously remarked, will serve to
distinguish the genus from any other of the Phycitine. A female
moth is shown twice natural size at a, the structure of the male antenna
at 6, fig. 1. The moth is subject to some variation as regards the
markings on the wings, which are sometimes more suffused than in
the specimen figured.

The wing expanse is about seven-eighths of an inch (21 mm. in the
male; 23 mm. in the female). —

TECHNICAL DIAGNOSIS OF THE GENUS MONOPTILOTA HULST.

Palpi ascending, second article heavy, third short; maxillary palpi small; front
broad, flattened; ocelli not discernible in undenuded specimens; antennze of ¢, first

Fic. 1.—Monoptilota nubilella: a, female moth; b, antenna cf male; ¢, gall of larva; d, young larva;
é, first abdominal segment of same from side; 7, mature larva; g, cocoon—all about twice natural
size, except b and e which are much magnified (original).

segment much lengthened, swollen, followed by a decided, rather lengthened bend,

hollowed on the inside into a deep furrow, or pocket, its entire length, the edges of

the furrow scaled, becoming tufted on posterior edges outwardly; beyond sinus
filiform; from beyond basal joint the antennze are unipectinate, the pectinations one on
each segment, filiform, being longest just beyond sinus and these five or six times
the diameter of the stem, each armed with straight parallel hairs on each side; end
segments ciliate. Antenne of Q filiform, ciliate; thorax and abdomen rather stout,
the genital armature of g¢ prominent. Fore wings rather elongate, subtriangular,

11 veins, 4 and 5 separate, 6 from cell near angle, 8 on 7, 9 and 10 from cell. Hind

wings broad, 8 veins, 2 near angle, 3 from angle separate from 4, 4 and 5 stemmed

half their length, 6 separate from 7; cell very short, not more than one-fourth wing
length. Legs as usual in the group, rather heavy. (Hulst.)

12

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION OF MONOPTILOTA NUBILELLA HULST.

Expands 21-23 mm. Palpi dark fuscous, ighter on inner side; front fuscous,
much darker in front of eyes, and in one specimen purplish in middle; antennz
fuscous; thorax fuscous, with purple tint, more marked in front, and lightening into
grayish behind; abdomen fuscous to light fuscous gray, somewhat purplish on ante-
rior segments. All the segments darker lined; fore wings dark fuscous, broadly
shaded with blackish longitudinally on veins, and lightened with white scales on
anterior half and submarginally making these portions gray, with blackish dashes
of ground color, the gray being most decided on subbasal and central anterior por-
tion. Over the wings on the intervenular spaces isa purplish stain more evident
posteriorly; cross lines faint, whitish, the inner shown mostly by the heavier dark
angulate, somewhat diffuse blackish outer shading, the outer fine, rounded outwardly
in middle with indistinct dentations; discal spots geminate, black; marginal line
broken, black; fringe fuscous. Hind-wings dark, smooth fuscous, lighter basally
and along inner margin, the lines darker; beneath even smooth fuscous, the fore
wings the darker; marginal line blackish. (Hulst.)

DISTRIBUTION.

It seems probable, in spite of the few ascertained localities which
we have concerning this insect, that its range extends well through
the austral portions of Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Colum-
bia, southward to Florida and Alabama, if not to a few neighboring
Gulf States. It is obviously extremely local, and the abundance of
individuals at Cabin John, Md., would appear to indicate that it per-
haps extends some little distance farther north where the climate is
suitable. At present it seems likely also that the species is a southern
one and that it does not occur very far north in the Carolinian portion
of the Upper Austral life area.

DESCRIPTIONS OF THE EARLIER STAGES.

The cgg.—¥ rom a crippled female eggs were obtained August 16,
but as they were not fertile and exceedingly variable in form a per-
fectly satisfactory detailed description was impossible. These were dull
gray in color, irregularly oblong oval in form, and the surface was
finely, distinctly, and rather regularly reticulated. The best formed
specimens of egg obtained measured about 0.70 mm. in length by
0.40 mm. in diameter.

The young larva.—The youngest larve seen have polished, perfectly
black head and thoracie shield; the body is dull light gray; the pilif-
erous warts and a few dots showing distinctly on each segment, a lit-
tle darker gray in color. The hairs naturally are longer in propor-
tion and nearly white in color.

The larvee between 10 and 12 mm. in length are darker, and those
which have come under observation that are a little larger are dull
green, darker above with dull carneous just beginning to show.

13

A young larva is shown in figure 1, at d, and an enlarged abdominal
segment of the same in profile at e.

The full-grown larva.—The larva when mature is of striking appear-
ance owing to the beautiful bluish-green color of the body. It is
of robust cylindrical form, about five times as long as wide when
extended, widest at the middle and tapering rather feebly till near the
anal extremity. The general color of the body is glaucous or light
sea-green (near verdigris green of Ridgway’s nomenclature). The
body is deepest in color, nearly blue on the ventral surface and in the
thoracic region. The dorsal portion of the abdominal segments is
darker and strongly marked as with an overlay, with dull carneous or
pinkish. Segmentation is rather strong and the thoracic and abdom-
inal folds are pronounced. The surface is rather sparsely clothed
with rather long yellow hairs, short on the head and legs and longer
elsewhere.

The head is a little less than half the greatest width, rather dark,
nearly uniform moderately shining brown in color, becoming black
near the trophi; inverted V-mark elongate, distinct. The first tho-
racic segment is a little narrower than the second and third; thoracic
plate strongly transverse, moderately shining olive brown. Thoracic
spiracle encircled with black; just anterior to this and a littlé below it
is a small yellow chitinous patch of subtriangular shape, the apex
directed obliquely slightly downward toward the head.

The first eight abdominal segments bear each a minute rounded
piliferous wart on the side, smaller than, and located just above, the
stigmata. Stigmata encircled with black. Last abdominal or anal
segment strongly divided transversely, giving the impression of an
extra segment. Anal shield weakly subtriangular, with the base
rounded and the angles obtuse; color rather pale yellow, with mar-
gins marked with four fine black spots arranged like the corners of a
rectangle. The three pairs of thoracic legs are well developed, as are
also the four pairs of abdominal and the anal prolegs.

Length when full grown and extended, 21-22 mm.; width, 4.2 mm.
The mature larva is shown in profile in the accompanying figure 1

at J.

After the larva has spun its cocoon and is prepared for hibernation
it undergoes a shrinkage, to about a third the size before its construc-
tion. Segmentation has become still stronger, and the body is now
widest at the first and second thoracic segments. The colors have
grown duller, the ground hue being green without the bluish tint.

The pupa.—the chrysalis or pupa is of robust proportions, and pre-
sents no characters worthy of special remarks. The color is rather
dull olive brown, and the surface is moderately smooth and feebly
shining in most portions except the wing-pads. These latter are nearly
opaque, dull olive green, and reach in front to the bottom of the fifth

14

abdominal segment. The extreme tip is armed on each side with a
minute spine, directed laterally and ventrally. Between these spines
are four short, moderately coarse bristles. Length of specimen used
in description, evidently male, 11 mm; width, 3.5 mm.

The cocoon.—Transformations take place in elliptical oval cocoons
constructed of particles of earth or sand, joined rather firmly together
by means of silk spun by the larva. One of these cocoons is shown at g,
fig. 1. The average measurement isabout 16 mm. long, and the diameter
is about half that. ‘These cocoons are usually formed in the immediate
neighborhood of the infested plants, and such as have been observed

were constructed close to the surface of the ground an inch or less

below it.

The galls.—The galls at the time that the larva has reached full devel-
opment measure about an inch to an inch and a quarter in length,
that being the average length of the burrow of the larva within. In
diameter they measure at this time about half an inch, but some have
been seen later in the season that measured three-fourths of an inch.

The opening toa gall is usually made at one end, but occasionally near
the middle, and of those seen a majority were placed at the lower end.

A gall with mass of exuding excrement is shown in figure | at e.

OCCURRENCE IN 1899.

Infestation was not noticed until July 8, but undoubtedly began
earlier, when several vines were observed to be dying from within one
to two feet of their tips, the leaves drooping over and slowly withering.
Three or four holes were noticed on each of these vines, evidence that
the parent insect had deposited three or four eggs upon each at rather
regular intervals, and from these holes issued a small quantity of
vellowish-white frass. The vines were in each case somewhat bent at
the point of attack and some had already begun to assume gall-like
proportions. Some of the vines were cut at this pointand larvee were
found from a little less than a quarter to about half an inch in length.
The largest burrows were at this time a little more than three-fourths
of an inch long, one-eighth of an inch at the opening, and only about
one-sixteenth in width, or just large enough for the easy passage of the
larva up and down the vine.

The infested portions of vines collected July 8 were placed ina
rearing jar and kept moist to prevent their drying. When examined
July 17, one larva, about half grown, was noticed crawling about the
jar. It was removed and placed in another jar with a fresh vine, and
was found to have bored into this the following day. It is obvious,
therefore, that the larvee are capable of leaving an infested stem for
another one as they crawl well and secrete a strong silk thread which
readily supports the body, and thus they are able to let themselves

ne eee ee ees

15

down without injury. Under ordinary circumstances, however, there
is no necessity for a change of residence and there is no evidence that
such change was voluntarily made during the season just passed.

July 25 and afterwards other visits were paid the infested bean patch,
and by looking closely for fresh droppings upon the leaves, for gall-
like swellings and dying and wilting leaves, a considerable number of
the borers were secured that had escaped the first visit. When a well-
formed gall results from borer attack it sometimes happens, particu-
larly if the plant be well advanced in growth and the point of attack
be low down upon the vine, that the plant does not appear to be in
any great degree incommoded by the insect’s presence, but it fre-
‘quently happens on the other hand that the gall, if badly formed or
made at a point where the plant is weak or weakly attached to the
pole, becomes in time so broken open that the upper portion is killed.
Several vines were thus found broken 4and 5 feet from the ends. In
one case a plant was observed that had lost three branching vines, all
about 4 feet long and all bearing undeveloped pods.

From careful observations of all infested vines it was found that
attack may take place at any point from the base of the vine ona level
with the ground to within a few inches of the tip; that the result of
attack varies greatly, a strong, well-grown plant being able to survive,
while a weak one usually suffers in greater or less degree. As is so
often the case with insect attacks, injury was much more noticeable
at one end of the rows, the northern in this instance, than elsewhere,
the southern end suffering somewhat less and the main portion of the
planting still less. Attack had begun at the north end in the direction
of the previous year’s vines and ended at the southern or far extremity,
since the larvee matured much earlier in the vines at the former place
than in the latter. One stunted plant attracted attention August 5.
It was still green, but the leaves had all fallen away and there were no
pods. It had been attacked two inches above the ground, and although
the stem had not been severed, the plant had been practically a failure
in consequence of the injury. —

A few of the larve that were taken from the oldest parts of the
largest vines were nearly full grown July 27, and by the beginning of
the second week of August all but a few were mature, and some had
escaped from the vines.

A mature larva was seen to leave its gall July 29, in the morning at
about 11 o’clock. When the jar was next examined, at 2 o’clock the
same afternoon, the larva had disappeared in the earth, and the fol-
lowing morning its cocoon was found attached to the stem in which it
had lived, at the base, at the bottom of the Jar.

Examination of the jar in which the other larve were confined
showed that some had reached maturity and entered the earth a few
days afterwards. One, however, was found August 1 which had just

16

molted, and was at this time only 3 mm. long. A majority of these
iarvee would probably have left the vines before the middle of August.
_ From the observed fact that a bean vine if infested at all is usually
attacked in two to half a dozen places, it is patent that a moth deposits
several eggs on a vine before leaving it. In one instance two galls
appeared about three inches apart.

Asa rule only a single larva inhabits a gall, but one was found in
which two were domiciled, one nearly grown, appearing to be the
original habitant, and the other, less than half grown, an interloper.

THE SPECIES PARTIALLY DOUBLE-BROODED.

Two of the moths issued August 15 and these were all that were
obtained that month from our rearing jars. One other moth issued
September 7. Examination of the jars showed that they contained
cocoons and when one of these was cut open, September 12, it was
found to contain the larva.

The same day the writer visited the infested locality, finding that
few larvee still remained in their galls. It was also noted, as we had
reason to expect, that a second generation had begun to attack the
plants.

The second generation about the District of Columbia is a very small
one, the majority of the first generation wintering over, probably as
larvee, as several species of insects are known to do here. In short, —
the species is only partially two-brooded, in this respect resembling
the squash-vine borer and certain chrysomelid beetles, which are not
fully double-brooded in this locality.

Farther north, if the species extends toward the Transition zone,
which seems doubtful, there would be without doubt only a single
generation, and southward in the Lower Austral we may be equally
sure to have two well-defined generations each year.

A larva obtained in the field September 14, and undoubtedly of the
second generation, required about a week longer to complete its growth
and was found spun up September 26.

It is evident that the second generation is able to complete its develop-
ment before the crop is made.

NATURAL ENEMIES.

The first generation of this insect appeared to be absolutely free
from the attack of any natural enemies, either parasitic or predaceous,
none of the galls harboring any other insect than its original occupant.
In galls produced by the smaller generation a single parasitic pupa
was found in September. This transformed to adult on the 4th of
that month, and the specimen on being referred to Mr. Ashmead was
identified as Omphale livida Ashm., originally described from Florida.

ilar

REMEDIAL MEASURES.

This insect could be kept in check by trimming and destroying the
terminal vines when these are found to be infested, while the larvee in
the lower portions of the stem could be removed by cutting longitudi-
nally without serious injury to the stem itself. This latter measure
was employed by the writer to obtain specimens with comparatively
little injury to the plant itself, and certainly with less than would have
been accomplished by the larve had they been left until maturity in the
stems. Such methods are, of course, irksome, but there is no other
recourse, as insecticides can not be applied so: as to reach the insect
without an equal amount of labor. Afterthe crop is gathered, harrow-
ing the plats where the plants were growing in the fall would tend to
expose the larve or pupe to the elements, and then plowing deeply in
the spring would have the effect of preventing the moths from issuing.
This remedy has been tried against the squash-vine borer with success,
and there can be scarcely any doubt that it would be productive of
equally good results with the present species.

THE SMALLER CORN STALK-BORER.

(Elasmopalpus lignosellus Zell.)

Since the first recorded injurious occurrence of the so-called smaller
corn stalk-borer in the Southern States in 1881, the species was not
reported to be again troublesome, to the writer’s knowledge, until the
past year, 1899. Neither has it to our knowledge been previously
observed to attack any other plant than corn, nor has it been recorded
from Alabama, in which State attack came to notice during the year.

The notes which follow, concerning recent injury, show a much
wider range of food plants than the species was formerly known to
have, and imply some doubt as to whether corn or other Graminez are
its original or preferred food plants.

REPORTS OF INJURY.

August 16, 1899, we received from Prof. F. S. Earle, Auburn, Ala.,
larvee of this species in stems of young beans. The larvee were in all
cases found in that portion of the stalk below the surface of the earth,
a hole showing near, apparently just at, the surface through which the
larva had forced its excrement and in many cases made its escape
before reaching us, as only a small proportion of the stalks sent con-
tained larve. From this sending were obtained moths which began
issuing during the last day of August and the first part of September.
Concerning injury, Professor Earle wrote under date of August 29

17591—No. 23 2

18

that less than 10 per cent of the stand of beans from which the infested
stalks were taken were left on the plat where infestation was noticed.
No larvee could be found at that time.

September 25, Mr. Thomas I. Todd, Athens, Ga., sent specimens of
larve, with the report that they feed in growing peanuts and had
destroyed in his vicinity a great many plants, sometimes as much as
half a crop. The specimens when received were partly in the shells of
the nearly mature nuts or tubers.

September 27, Mr. H. M. Simons, Charleston, S. C., sent larve,
together with specimens of the stalks of snap beans showing injury
done by them. The species was described as attacking beans at all
stages of growth, from the time that the plant appears above ground
until it comes in full bloom, and injury had been noticed even when
the plants were fully mature and the beans nearly ripe.

October 2, Mr. Todd included a specimen of this larva in a sending
of various species found eating the leaves of turnip. The larva was
spun up at the side of the midrib of a leaf, being partially concealed
in a web, and overnight ate a very considerable quantity of the leaf.
Concerning its occurrence in peanuts, he wrote, in response to inquiry
as to whether the proximity of corn did not have something to do with
the attack, that the peanut patch where the larvee were first observed
was at least 200 yards from any corn, and that no corn had been planted
nearer the previous year. Inquiry of his neighbors brought out the
information that peanuts that were planted between each hill of corn
were very little more subject to attack than where the peanuts grew
distant from cornfields. Our correspondent also failed to find any
corn that was infested. Larger borers, however, were found in the
stalks, presumably either the corn ear-worm or the fall army worm.

DESCRIPTIVE.

The moth which produces this borer is a member of the family Phy-
citide, and until recently was known in most worksas Pempelia ligno-
sella, but is now referred to the genus Elasmopalpus of Blanchard. It
is an exceedingly variable species, but typical specimens resemble
rather closely the forms illustrated in figure 38. The moth measures
about three-fourths of an inch in wing expanse, the females being
usually larger. There is great difference in the two sexes, so great in
fact that in ordinarily well-marked specimens the sexes look like dis-
tinct species. Besides the differences in antennal structure, which can
at once be seen by comparison of the two figures (@ representing the
male and 4 and 60 the female), the male palpi are longer and thicker.
Pale yellow or ochreous is the prevailing color of the fore-wings of
the males in well-marked individuals. This is bordered out-wardly,
particularly at the ends, with dark purplish scales, forming a pattern

19

more or less like that represented in the figure of the male here pre- —
sented, there being great variability as to the extent of the ground
color and the border. In extremely dark individuals the ochreous is
scarcely apparent save in a small portion of the middle of the wings.

In the females the wings are entirely reddish, purplish, or plumbeous,
and in some cases nearly black. The head and thorax are usually light
in the male and of the same color as the wings in the females. The
abdomen in both sexes is gray. The hind-wings are transparent, light
silvery fuscous, witha rather strong subbasal line on the inner margin
of the cilia. The peculiar structure of the antennz and mouth-parts
of the male is mentioned somewhat in detail with enlarged figures in
the report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1881. A portion of
these have been adapted to figure 2, here reproduced. The variability
of the species is shown by the different synonyms founded on colora-
tional differences. Of these, angustellus Blanch.
agrees with the type; ¢ncautellus Zell. differs in
having the central portion of the fore-wings bright
reddish; while tartarellus Zell. has the fore-wings
plumbago or blackish.

DISTRIBUTION.

_ FrieG. 2.—Elasmopalpus The original specimens of this species accom-
Coen ot inesina, panying the first reported injury in the United
cating outline of scales; b, States were received from Richmond County, Ga.
martsdenuded:e maxillary LHe species was reported the same year at Atlanta,
palpusof male—all greatly Ga., and Columbia, S. C., and as far north as
Rept hoo Asziss), © Chapelhill, N. C.' In the National Museum col-

lection we have also specimens from Eufaula, Ala..
Archer, Fla., Kansas, and Texas, the last State being represented by
material from several sources, in all probability from as many
localities. .

Zeller recorded this species from Texas, and Dr. Hulst (Tr. Am.
Ent. Soc., Vol. XVII, p. 159) added Florida, with the additional state-
ment that it had been taken in the Bahamas, Venezuela, Buenos Ayres,
Patagonia, and Chile. Zeller also records Colombia and Brazil.

.t is evident from this that the species is of southern origin, obv1-
ously tropical, and perhaps introduced from the West Indies into
subtropical North America. As no very extensive injury has been
recorded since its original discovery of establishment as an enemy to
agricultural interests, now nearly twenty vears ago, it seems proba-
ble that there is very little immediate danger of serious injuries or of
the insect’s spreading much farther north than where it has been
reported to occur in North Carolina; although this may be accom-
plished in time. The past year Mr. Aug. Busck obtained a perfect
moth at Bladensburg, Md., in August, and Mr. F. M. Webster observed

20

this species several years ago at LaFayette, Ind. These captures, how-
ever, do not evidence the permanancy of the species in those localities.

THE EARLY STAGES OF THE INSECT.

The larva.—The larva is nearly cylindrical, upward of half an inch
long when mature, and a beautiful object when viewed through a hand
lens, pale green in color, marked above with nine reddish-brown
longitudinal stripes arranged in transverse bands, forming on the
different segments the patterns shown in figure 3 at d.

It is of elongate subcylindrical form, moderately depressed on the
dorsum and alittle more ventrally, and upward of eight times as long
as wide. ‘The general color above is in life pale bluish green, and the
venter is paler green tinged more or less strongly with carneous. The
blue and green colors fade in inflated specimens and in alcohol. The
head is small, considerably narrower than the first thoracic segment,

Fig. 3.—Elasmopalpus lignosellus: a, male moth; b, fore-wing of dark female; 6b, antenna of female;
ce, male at rest; d, larva; e, ventral segment of larva from side, much enlarged; f, cocoon—all except e
three times natural size (original).

and shining moderately dark brown in color. Prothoracic plate very
dark brown, nearly black, polished, with the median line narrow but
distinct. The thoracic segments are deeper bluish green than the
abdominal, this color and the lighter abdominal ground color showing
only near the sutures. where it forms in the anterior portion of each
segment a transverse band, appearing at a little distance to be only
about a fourth as wide as the remainder of each segment, but in
reality (by closer inspection) fully a third of the whole segment. Seg-
mentation is not pronounced, but the segmental folds, as seen from
the side, are moderately prominent. Surface sparsely covered with
moderately long hairs. Anal segment darker than the other abdomi-
nal segments, but scarcely with a pronounced shield as in many larve.
Length, 15 to 16 mm.; width, 1.8 to 2 mm.

21

Transformation to pupa takes place in a tolerably compact cocoon
formed in the earth and covered with grains of sand or dirt. Such as
nave been seen were elongate, nearly reniform or bean-shaped, acutely
prolonged at each end, and measured, when divested of such parti-
cles of sand or dirt as did not adhere closely, from 12 to 14 mm. in
length and about 6 mm. in width. A cocoon is shown at 7 of figure 3,

LITERATURE.

During the year 1881 this species was
the subject of some study on the part of
Dr. Howard, as also of Dr. W. S. Bar-
nard, at that time connected with this of-
fice. Among other things it was learned
that it had never been noticed in this
country prior to 1878 (Rept. Comm. Agr.
for 1881, pp. 142-145). Brief mention of
this stalk-borer as an enemy of corn has
been given by Prof. L. Bruner in his re-
port to the State Board of Agriculture of
Nebraska for 1891 (p. 260), and this sums
up all that the writer is able to find that
bears in any way upon the biology of the
insect. A rather full bibliography is given
by Dr: Hulst (1. c.): rf

Figure 4 shows the nature of the work #
of this stalk-borer in corn.

NORE NEMS. Fig. 4.—Corn stalk showing work of

maller corn stalk-borer—natural sizes

Until the past year no natural enemies (ie Riley, Rept, Dept. Agr, 1881).

of this species had been observed, to our

knowledge. From larve received from Mr. Todd, Athens,Ga., a
hymenopterous parasitic larva issued October 15, and four days later
was found to have transformed to a naked pupa, the adult issuing
early in November. It has been identified by Mr. Ashmead as Orgzlus
(Microgaster) mellipes Say.

REMEDIES.

Previous observations have shown the practical impossibility of a
perfect remedy for this insect, since it has been observed to hibernate
in all three stages of larva, pupa, and adult.

Only two remedies suggest themselves: The plowing up and burn-
ing of the corn stubble or other infested material as early as possible
after the crop is made, as already advised in the 1881 report, and rota-
tion with some crop not affected by the species. It seems probable
that this insect would not injure any of the smaller cereals, sweet
potatoes, cotton, melons and other cucurbits, potato, tobacco, and

22

other solanaceous crops, asparagus and other vegetables, and this sug-
gests the use of the small grains and the other field and garden plants
as alternate crops. It is not likely that the insect could be reached
with insecticides.

THE PALE-STRIPED FLEA-BEETLE.
(Systena blanda Mels.)

The frequency of the occurrence of the little flea-beetle, Systena
blanda Mels., on cultivated crops in recent years, as shown by pub-
lished record as well as by personal experience, has led the writer to
look carefully through our literature and our divisional notebooks
and to make such observations as have been possible toward a comple-
tion of our knowledge of the species. In the vicinity of Washington,
D. C., the beetle has been no-
ticed most often in connection
with observations on the insect
enemies of beans, but the larva
has not been found on, and may
not live at the expense of, this
‘plant. The beetle is more
often associated with corn than
with any other crop plant, and
the larva, although on one
occasion found upon corn,
Fie. 5.—Systena blanda: a, larva; 6, beetle; c, eggs; without doubt feeds normally
d, sculpture of egg; e, anal segment, from side; 7, On certain common species of
er eee i times natural size; e, f, weeds, one of which was posi-
tively identified during the
past season, while a second is more than probable. The still more
common occurrence of the beetles on certain other forms of weeds indi-
cates these as also larval food plants.

DESCRIPTION OF THE ADULT.

The beetle known as Systena blanda measures about an eighth of an
inch (3-2.5 mm.) in length and is about a third as wide as long. It is
cream colored, with nearly black abdomen and eyes, and the elytra are
ornamented with a broad sutural and two narrower marginal stripes
of a dull, light-brown color.

Not infrequently the elytral stripes are obsolete. The head is red-
dish, the long, slender antenne and the legs also marked with light
brown, and the posterior femora are greatly enlarged like those of
other flea-beetles. It resembles superficially the common cabbage
flea-beetle (Phiyllotreta vittata), but is much larger. The colors speci-
fied apply to the typical b/anda, which is represented at figure 5, 0.

a ae

,

23

Everything considered, this is perhaps the best-known species of its
genus, from the frequency of its attacks on cultivated crops. The
term species is used for convenience. Up to the year 1889 Systena
blanda was considered to be a distinct species. In that year, however,
Dr. Horn, in his Synopsis of the Halticini of Boreal America (Tr. Am.
Ent. Soc., Vol. XVI, p. 273), relegated this form to varietal rank, plac-
ing it as a synonym of S. tenzata Say. It is not within the province
of this note to discuss the validity of blanda as a species, nor dispute
the opinion of our greatest authority on American Coleoptera. The
question is largely one of opinion, and for present purposes at least
teniata and blanda may be considered distinct. A common form of
tenvata is shown at figure 6. It is polished black
with white stripes, having the same superficial ap-
pearance as elongata Fab., a common Eastern form.
The references to published literature which will be
cited pertain only to accounts in which dblanda is
either specifically mentioned or known to have been
the species under consideration.

DISTRIBUTION.

Systena blanda is a native American species, and.
was first described by the younger Melsheimer from — pyg. 6, — systenatent-
Pennsylvania (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sei. Phila., Vol. «a, dark variety—about
III, p. 164) in 1847. prints oe

The distribution accorded by Horn inciudes
**New England” and Pennsylvania to ‘‘ Dakota,” Kansas, Colorado,
and New Mexico. It has been observed in the greatest abundance,
according to available data, in New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania,
Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Nebraska. Injuries have also
been reported in Virginia, Georgia, Delaware, Michigan, and
Arkansas.

The following list of localities is for the most part derived from
material in the National Museum, and particularly from specimens in
the Hubbard and Schwarz collection, and from the collections of the
writer and Mr. Pratt, but includes also a number of recorded localities
not represented by specimens:

** New York” (exact locality unknown); Cape May, Spring Lake, and
Washington, N. J.; Allegheny, Chambersburg, and Kennett Square,
Pa.; Newark, Del.; Marshall Hall, River View, Seat Pleasant, and
Travilah, Md.; Colonial Beach, Woodstock, Rosslyn, Fortress Mon-
roe, and Pennington Gap, Va.; Adrian and Monroe, Mich.; Cham-
paign, Anna and northern Illinois; Chesterton, Columbia City, Pax-
tons, Sumner, and Tippecanoe County, Ind.; Lincoln, Nebr.; Harrison,
Ark., and Jackson County, Ga. Specimens identified and labeled
‘‘blanda” are also present in the national collection from Winslow,

24

Tucson, and Yuma, Ariz.; Salt Lake City, Utah; La Veta, Colo., and —
California." |
Although the above localities show a wide distribution east and west
and southward from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the species is, on
the whole, somewhat peculiarly Carolinian, at least as regards reported
injuries. It has never been found, at least to the writer’s knowledge,
near New York City, and its occurrence in the Austral portion of New
York State is doubtless rare. The exact locality in New England does
not appear to be known, but it 1s not improbable that it is Connecticut,
which includes a considerable strip of Carolinian territory. The spe-
cies is evidently rare in the upper portion of the Carolinian region, and
not common in the Austroriparian, if indeed it occurs there at all.

DESCRIPTIONS OF THE EARLIER STAGES.

The egg.—The egg is elliptical but somewhat inconstant in outline,
about two and a half times as long as wide, and opaque, light buff
yellow in color. The sculpture of the surface, as observed under a
moderately high power of microscope, appears to be granulated, but
under a higher lens it is seen to be divided into very minute and rather
ill-defined shallow concave hexagonal areas arranged in sevens inclosed
in hexagons. Length, 0.60 to 0.68 mm.; width, 0.25 to 0.27 mm.

The eggs are shown enlarged at c, fig. 5 and the sculpture at d.

Eggs were laid from June 10 to July 8, and all that were observed
were deposited singly and in small masses of three or four, flat upon
the leaves or attached to the sides of the tubes in which the beetles
were confined. |

The larva.—The larva is white and slender, resembling superficially
Diabrotica and Epitrix, whose larve have been figured in previous
bulletins of this series. The head is light brownish yellow and the
legs are pale yellowish and faintly lined with dark brown at the articu-
lations of the joints. The legs resemble those of Epitrix, ending in
blunt padlike processes. The dorsal surface of the body is somewhat
peculiar as regards the tubercles. ‘These are so nearly obsolete as
to render it difficult to locate them with certainty. Their arrange-
ment is only approximately indicated in the illustration (fig. 5, @).

1A very considerable proportion of these last-mentioned specimens have the sutu-
ral and lateral stripes black. Most of the individuals thus marked fall into varie-
ties mitis and ligata, and may be considered txniata. In other words, I have reserved
the term blanda to apply more particularly to such forms of teniata Say (Horn) as
occur in the eastern portion of the United States (mostly in the Carolinian life area,
although blanda appears to extend somewhat into the Upper Sonoran), while txni-
ata is reserved for those other very variable forms, such as mitis and ligata.

There is every probability that the form found in Colorado, Arizona, and New
' Mexico extends into Central America, as a species of Systena has been described by
Clark under the name of pectoralis, which is, according to Jacoby, ‘‘perhaps iden-
tical with blanda Melsh.’’ This latter form is generally distributed in Mexico and
other States of Central America.

25

The most striking feature of the larva is, perhaps, the anal segment,
which tapers to a conspicuous prolonged process, surmounted at the
apex with a crown of short spines and four long stiff spinose hairs.
This segment is shown enlarged, dorsal view, at ~ while the lateral
view (e) shows also the anal proleg. The surface of the body is mod-
erately hairy, the hairs of varying length.

The length of the larva when full grown is about 3 mm., the width
about one-eighth of that.

A somewhat more technical description of the larva is given by Mr.
John Marten (Forbes’s 18th Ills. Rept., 1894, p. 22).

The pupa.—The pupa also resembles those of Epitrix and Diabrotica,
being of the same general appearance and having the anal segment
ending in a pair of spines, described by Marten as brown, rather long,
tapering, and very thick at the base. Length, 3.5 to 4mm.

RECENT UNRECORDED OCCURRENCE OF THE SPECIES.

This flea-beetle was first observed on beans during the first two
weeks of August, 1897, at Marshall Hall and Seat Pleasant, Md., eat-
ing the epidermis from the upper sides of the leaves, and was noticed
in less numbers on bean leaves the following years. The first record

of serious damage to beans which can be found is that of F. M. Web-

ster (Insect Life, Vol. VI, p. 186), who states that it was very destruct-
ive to beans in Ohio in 1893, and that ‘‘large fields were seriously
damaged.”

In 1898 the species was quite abundant upon its wild food plants,
and particularly noticeable by its occurrence on the pigweed, Ambrosia
artemisiefolia. That year at River View, Md., it occurred in such
abundance as to outnumber any other species of beetle that could be
obtained with a sweep net.

June 30 Mr. F. J. Dickinson, Chesterton, Ind., sent specimens, with
the report that the species was causing much alarm through the neigh-
boring country, and that the beetles appeared on a great variety of
plants, but seemed to be doing the most damage to the potato.

July 5 the beetles were found at Colonial Beach, Va., in numbers on
the cocklebur, Xanthiwm canadense, eating the leaves from the upper
surface, and in this locality at least preferring this plant as food to the
Ambrosia artemisiefolia, which grew in the immediate neighborhood.

July 9 Mr. Dickinson wrote in response to inquiry that this species
was injurious to melons and other cucurbits, turnips and other crucif-
erous plants, eggplant, beans, tomato, and potato, the last crop being
the one that was most seriously damaged in that vicinity.

In 1899, Mr. Edwin C. Post, Monroe, Mich., under date of June 23,
sent specimens, with the information that the species occurred ina
sugar-beet field, presumably in that vicinity, which had been practi-
cally destroyed by them. They were described as quite active, jump-

26

ing about like fleas, and were found on only one other plant, specimens
of which were inclosed and which proved to be Ambrosia artemisiefolia.

The same year the species was to be found in its usual abundance
upon the weed last mentioned, as also upon the black or garden night-
shade (Solanum nigrum). July 1 it was observed on beans and upon
Lima beans at Cabin John, Md.

July 11 and 12 Mr. Pratt, on the occasion of a visit at Travilah,
Md., made a special search for the larva, with the result of finding a
few individuals at the roots of lambsquarter, Chenopodium album, and
Jamestown weed, Datura stramonium. The imagos reared issued
July 22 and 23.

In a previous year the writer captured an adult near Washington,
June 17, which had but just issued, being still immature at this time.

PUBLISHED. ACCOUNTS OF FOOD HABITS AND INJURY.

What is evidently the first account of the habits of this species was
published by Townend Glover in the Monthly Report of this Depart-
ment for July, 1873 (republished in Ann. Rept. 1873, p. 152). In
June of that year it was reported at Chambersburg, Pa., where it had
‘‘nearly devastated a field of corn, eating the leaves and leaving the bare
stalks standing.” In 1878 or 1879, according to Dr. Cyrus Thomas
(cf. Webster), this insect ‘‘ravaged fields of growing corn in Illinois.”

Other accounts containing information concerning the habits of this
species may be briefly mentioned. In 1884 Dr. S. A. Forbes (18th
Rept. Ins. Ill., 1883 [1884], p. 86) published a brief notice of its
abundance on the leaves of strawberry and melon near Anna, in south-
ern Illinois. In 1886 the same writer mentioned the rearing of its
larva from kernels of sprouting corn in the earth (Can. Ent., Vol.
~ XVIII, p. 177) and the feeding of the imago on the cocklebur, Xan-
thium strumarium (Ent. Amer., Vol. Il, p. 174). In 1887, according
to Mr. F. M. Webster, it occurred on potato vines in Tippecanoe
County, Ind. (Indiana Farmer, July 30, 1887; Rept. U. S. Dept.
Agr., 1887, p. 151). The same year Dr. J. A. Lintner recorded it on
cotton in Jackson County, Ga. (Count. Gent., Vol. LI, 1887, p. 441;
4th N. Y. Rept., 1888, p. 155). In 1890 Mr. Webster again reported
injuries at Lafayette, Ind., to beets (Tr. Ind. Hort. Soc. for 1890
[1891], p. 26.) The following year Mr. Lawrence Bruner included
this species in a list of the insects observed in Nebraska attacking the
sugar beet. White clover, purslane, and Amaranthus are also cited
as food plants, and the opinion was expressed that this is hable to be
one of the most destructive beet insects in the West (Bul. 238, Div.
Ent., p. 15). He also treats of the species somewhat more at length
(Bul. 16, Nebr. Agr. Expt. Sta., 1891, p. 60) in its relation to sugar
beet, adding Chenopodium to the list of the food plants of the beetle,
and remarking that it fed sparingly on the Crucifere.

|
|

27
The species mentioned by J. F. Wielandy in Insect Life (Vol. III,

p. 122) as having been ‘‘ very pestiferous” to various plants in 1890 at
Santa Fé, N. Mex., and particularly to ‘*‘ Yosemite Mammoth bush
beans (costing one-half a cent a bean),” is probably blanda, but the
specimens received on that occasion are not, at the time of writing,
avallable for identification.

In 1893 Dr. J. B. Smith reported it in great abundance in the south-
ern and central counties of New Jersey. Near Bridgeton, June 26, ‘‘it
had almost entirely destroyed every field of carrots,” the injury being to
young plants as soon as they appeared above the surface. The leaves
of young beets were infested, ‘‘melons of all kinds were also attacked,
and in one field of cantaloupes the injury done by these creatures
exceeded the injury done by the striped beetles,” Diabrotica vittata.
Corn, purslane, and pigweed were also infested. In previous years
the same writer had noted injury by this species to beans near Wash-
ington, N. J. (Rept. Ent. N. J. Agl. Coll. Expt. Sta. for 1893 [1894],
pp. 478-480.)

In 1894 Dr. Forbes publishes the first account of the biology of this
species, giving descriptions (by John Marten) of the larva and pupa
and figuring the former.

Finaily, in 1899, Prof. W. G. Johnson, of the Maryland Agricultural

‘Experiment Station, reported this species to be injurious that year, the

first report having reached him May 2, to Kieffer pear grafts. _Dam-
age was stated to be serious, and was accomplished by the beetle’s eating
out the terminals, thus stunting the growth of the trees. June 1, the
same year, the species was reported to Professor Johnson as having
destroyed 40 acres of tomatoes in Dorchester County, Md., injury
being described as widespread, serious damage having been done in
the Eastern Shore counties (Bul. 20, n. s., p. 63).

EARLY DIVISIONAL RECORDS.

Complaints of damage to the blades of corn have come to the Division
from other sources than those published. Among these a few may be
mentioned. Reports were received, with specimens, from John W.
Spencer, Paxton, Sullivan County, Ind., dated June 22, 1885; from
R. F. Smith, Columbia City, Ind., who stated that the species was
‘*doing considerable damage to growing corn and oats,” June 20, 1895;
from B. F. Ferris, Sumner, Ind., reporting that this flea-beetle was
‘destroying the leaves of young corn as soon as they appear, thereby
killing the plants.”

The writer observed the beetles in some abundance the second week
of June, 1891, at Kennett Square, Pa., eating the blades of corn and
the leaves of Ambrosia artemisiefolia, which grew between the rows of
hills.

Of injury to other crops the following reported instances are worthy

28

of mention: July 238, 1886, Mr. E. W. Allis sent specimens of the
beetle to this office, with the accompanying information that the species
had been very destructive to early sugar beets that year at Adrian,
Mich. <A neighbor, Mr. H. C. Bradish, was also much annoyed with
this beetle. Our correspondent noticed the abundance of the beetles
on ‘*‘hogweed,” presumably Ambrosia artemisiefolia. June 21, 1891,
the species was received from Mr. M. H. Beckwith, Newark, Del.,
with the report that it was injuring the leaves of potato. May 25,
1898, Mr. J. G. Taylor, Harrison, Ark., sent beetles with the state-
ment that they were injuring pear leaves, eating them partially, so
that they colored and dried up. The damage was most apparent on
young budded nursery stock of that spring’s growth. The beetles were
to a lesser extent injurious to foliage of young apple trees.

There are also specimens in the National collection labeled ‘‘on
peas,” and others ‘*‘on peanuts,” but without locality. There is also
a note referring to the last specimens, stating that the beetles were
destroying peanuts. The locality in the last case is probably St. Louis,
Mo.; the date June, 1874. 7

PROBABILITY OF A SECOND GENERATION.

Adults have been taken by the writer in numbers as late as Septem-
ber 17 in past years in central New Jersey, and this late occurrence of
the beetles, taken together with their observed issuance as early as the
middle of June, has disposed the writer to the belief that there is
probably a second generation of this species in a latitude like that of
the District of Columbia, although an experiment that was made for
the purpose of testing the matter met with negative results.

July 28, 1899, a considerable number of beetles were placed in a
large rearing cage with a healthy potted plant of Ambrosia artemisie-
folia. It was examined about a month later and no trace of larvee
could be found, but the plant had begun to wither at this time.
Although this is not conclusive evidence that there is not a later gen-
eration of S. dlanda, it is significant as indicating the probability that
the insects do not deposit eggs ordinarily after the end of July.

SUMMARY OF LIFE HISTORY.

From what has been recorded it is obvious that there is much to
learn before we know even approximately the life history of this
species, as, for example, when it makes its first appearance and begins
egg laying, how and where the eggs are deposited, the period of ovula-
tion, a full list of the larval food plants, and whether the species is
single or double brooded.

At the present time we know that the species hibernates as a beetle,
and appears above ground in this vicinity early in June; that egg

29

laying continues probably through that month and at least to the
middle of July, if not two or three weeks later; that injury is due to
the beetles upon their first appearance usually; and that almost any
valuable crop may be injured, either in the absence or presence of
the wild food plants; that the larve feed below ground, and probably
have a wide range of host plants in addition to those which have been
ascertained, which include at present only corn, lambsquarter, and
probably Jamestown weed.

NATURAL ENEMIES.

Neither predaceous nor parasitic insect enemies have been observed
of this species. The writer is under obligations to Dr. Sylvester D.
Judd, of the Division of Biological Survey, for information concern-
ing certain of its vertebrate enemies. During June and July, 1898, he
observed two species of sparrows in wheat fields near Marshall Hall,
Md., feeding upon the adult flea-beetles, which were at the time on
Ambrosia artemisiefolia growing between the rows of wheat. The
chipping sparrow (Spizella socialis) was observed June 16 and 17, and
specimens were shot and their stomachs examined. Eight of these
contained individuals of the flea-beetle as follows: 8, 12, 5, T, 8, 6, 12,
and 14specimens in each. The grasshopper sparrow or yellow-winged
sparrow (Ammodramus ravennarum passerinus) was observed attacking
this flea-beetle July 9.

REMEDIES.

Dr. Fletcher has reported finding that Paris green applied dry,
mixed with twenty parts of flour and dusted on the infested plants,
was thoroughly effective against this insect, and Professor Bruner
obtained equally good success by the use of kerosene emulsion. The
arsenites suggest themselves as the appropriate remedy, and, since
Bordeaux mixture has been found to be particularly distasteful to flea-
beetles, this substance, if mixed with Paris green and applied as a
spray, should prove still more valuable than when used dry. Keeping
down the weeds which are known to be, or which we have good rea-
son to believe are, larval food plants, such as lambsquarter, cockle-
bur, pigweed, etc., should also be productive of good results. A good
time for the destruction of these weeds would be about the middle of
July, when most of the beetles have laid their eggs, and the larve
have not yet attained full development. By pulling up and burning
the weeds at this time the larve could be destroyed in great numbers.

Although the species is still periodical in its attacks, it is by no
means certain that it will not prove injurious in some localities for
two or more years in succession.

30

OBSERVATIONS ON THE BEAN LEAF-BEETLE.

(Cerotoma trifurcata Forst.)

Our knowledge of the life history of this species while not entirely
complete, is so nearly so that no special effort has lately been made to
learn more concerning it. Nevertheless a few facts have been observed
and reported which are deserving of record. Among the cases of
reported injury in 1899 that will be cited are some of unusual severity,
a circumstance of some interest, since it bears out the prediction made
by the writer two years ago (Bul. 9,n. s., p. 64) that the species was
obviously increasing in abundance and injuriousness and liable to
become a pest to the bean crop of the central Atlantic portion of the
United States.

Injurious occurrence in Virginia and northward.—TYhe species was
as abundant in 1899 in the localities visited by the writer in and near
the District of Columbia as in the two previous years.

May 30, 1899, specimens of the beetle were brought to this Division
by Mr. George G. Hill, who stated that the insect was doing consider-
able damage to young beans at Falls Church, Va.

About the same time Dr. S. D. Judd reported the species in great
abundance, and injurious to beans about a foot high, in the vicinity of
Marshall Hall, Md.

June 5 we received word through Mr. E. B. Calvert, of this Depart-
ment, that this species, a specimen of which was received, was doing
much damage to string and Butler bean vines at Petersburg, Va.

June 6, Mr. E. M. Wright, Eureka, Ill., observed this species,
which he identified from the description and illustration given in Bul-
letin No. 9, on wax beans in his vicinity.

Injurious occurrence in Alabama.—Jane 15 we received specimens
of the larva from Mr. F. §. Earle, Auburn, Ala., together with
affected bean stalks which were believed to be injured by it. The
insect was described as an old offender. Writing under date of July
4, our correspondent stated that this species had been excessively abun-
dant that year and had practically destroyed all the early plantings of
beans; those planted after the middle of May, however, escaped injury.
The beetles were described as being on hand, waiting for the plants
to come up, and when the ground was cracked open by the seedlings
the beetles went down and injured the minute plants badly before they
could get above ground. In this respect injury resembles that so well
known as being caused by the striped cucumber beetle, Dzabrotica
vittata, to cucumber and cther cucurbits. The crop was sprayed
three or four times with Paris green, but this did not save it.

Accompanying Mr. Earle’s first letter were specimens of the roots
and subterranean stems showing work both of the larva and of what

d1

our correspondent described as four different kinds of serious fungus
enemies, which considerably complicated matters. Early plantings of
cowpea were said to have been injured almost as badly as beans. It
was stated also, among other things, that farmers in north Alabama
no longer attempted planting cowpeas before June on account of the
injuries attributed to this insect. Velvet beans were growing side by
side with beans in plots on the Experiment Station grounds at Auburn,
Ala.,and the former appeared to be entirely free from attack, while
the latter were badly injured. Exemption from attack on garden pea
had been noticed here as elsewhere.

Occurrence in other localities. —Among new localities where attack
on bean was observed during the year were Alexandria, Va., Travilah,
Md., and Louisiana, Mo. In the locality last mentioned, attack was
reported by Mr. G. M. Dodge in a letter dated November 24.

At Bay Ridge, Md., the work of the beetle was evident on hog pea-
nut, Halcata comosa (Amphicarpea monoica), and although the larva
was not found on this plant, the fact that no other known larval food
plant or other plant, affected by the beetle grew in the vicinity is
additional evidence that this is a true host plant of the larva. Beetles
taken at this time on the vines deposited eggs July 25.

Early and late occurrences.—One observation on the occurrence of
the bean leaf-beetle near Washington was the appearance of a newly
transformed beetle June 30, which is nearly two weeks earlier than
observed in 1897.

Beetles were taken as late as September 15, on which date considera-
ble injury was noticed on the young terminal leaves of Lima bean at

Cabin John, Md.

NOTES ON THE IMBRICATED SNOUT-BEETLE.
(Epicerus imbricatus Say.)

This species, which was treated somewhat fully by the writer in
Bulletin 19, n. s. (pp. 62-67), has since come under observation on
several occasions, having been studied in connection with insects affect-
ing beans and peas.

Adults were observed July 8, 1899, feeding upon bush beans at
Cabin John, Md., and two days later Mr. Pratt found the beetles at
Travilah, Md., eating blossoms of Lima bean. All of the beetles seen
at this date were badly rubbed and such as were kept died a week or
two later, none remaining after the third week of July. July 29, 1899,
a newly transformed beetle, as its bright color indicated, was taken on
the foliage of tick trefoil (J/ecbomia sp.).

Although the life history of this species is incomplete, we have the
principal data, with the exception of the most important—the larva and
pupa and larval food plant. The above observations show that the

32
beetles of the new brood may appear within at least a week or two
from the time of the demise of the hibernated parent beetles.

During the second week of August a fungus was noticed to be grow-
ing upon a specimen of this snout-beetle in our rearing jar, and was
kept until it appeared to be fully developed, when a sketch which
accompanies this note was made. The infected insect was referred to
the Division of Vegetable Physiology and Pathology, and the fungus
was identified by Prof. B. T. Galloway as a species of Sporotrichum,
very close to, if not identical with, 8. globuliferum. In the letter of
transmittal the writer expressed the opinion that the death of the insect
might be due to fungous attack, an opinion in which Professor Gallo-
way concurs, since he writes that the fungus
is an active parasite on many other insects,
and there is therefore little doubt that it was
the cause of the beetle’s death. Attention is
called to the bisymmetrical arrangement of
the fungous growth upon the body of the in-
-ect in the accompanying figure.

This species was rare the past season in the
neighborhood of the District of Columbia as
compared with previous years. Two com-
plaints, however, reached this office from
sources farther south. April 14, we received
specimens of the beetles from Mr. David
Hunter, San Antonio, Bexar County, Tex..
Fic. 7.—Epiczrus imbricatus:bee- With the information that the species was do-

eee N ing damage to peach, plum, and pear trees
by feeding upon the buds and young foliage.

The beetles had been troublesome the previous year and were jarred
from the trees, but they again put in an appearance the following
year in still greater numbers. May 15 Mr. T. G. Knoop, Glenwood,
Okla., sent this species with others concerned im injury to apple trees.

A NEW TINGITID ON BEAN.
Gargaphia angulata Heid.)

June 13, 1899, Prof. F. S. Earle, Auburn, Ala., sent specimens of
this insect in different stages found on the leaves of bean at that place.
Our correspondent had not noticed the insect before, but expressed the
belief that it might be quite destructive.

The species was referred to Mr. Otto Heidemann of this division for
identification, with the result that it was discovered to be a new species
of Gargaphia, to which he has applied the name angw/ata from haying
found a specimen in the National Museum collection, labeled, in Pro-

38

fessor Uhler’s handwriting, ** Zingis angulata Uhler MS. on beans,
Riley.” The locality where Professor Riley made this observation is
probably St. Louis, Mo., as most of the unlabeled material from the
Riley collection was obtained in the early seventies in the vicinity of
that city. As the facts concerning this species are meager, it was
thought best to describe the species in a periodical publication rather
than in our general series; hence Mr. Heide-
mann’s description was sent to the Canadian Ento-
mologist, and appeared in the issue of October, 1899
(Vol. XX XI, p. 301). -The species may readily be
determined by this description and by compari-
son with the illustration which is presented here-
with.

It is, as stated by Mr. Heidemann, closely al-
lied to G. wiridescens Champ., from Mexico and
Texas, but differs by the angulated sides of the
pronotum, by the larger number of areoles at the Fic. 8—Gargaphia angu-
costal area, and the longer hairs at the edge of pees ca Sais
the pronotal margins and of -the hood. It is also
allied to G. negrinervis Stal., from Colombia and Mexico, but does not
have the discoidal area of the hemelytra abruptly closed behind by a
transverse, oblique raised nervure.

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NSIC

THE DESTRUCTIVE GREEN PEA LOUSE.
(Nectarophora destructor J ohns. )

Most remarkable of all the injurious occurrences of insects on edible
leguminous crops during the year 1899 was that of the green pea louse,
Nectarophora destructor Johns., which has overrun and laid waste fields
of peas from Nova Scotia and Canada to Virginia and Maryland. It
was first reported siniultaneously from Virginia and Maryland, and has
already been the subject of communications’ by Professor Johnson,
published in Bulletin No. 20 of this Division (new series, pp. 94-99)
and elsewhere. The notes which follow may be considered as supple-
mentary to Professor Johnson’s articles; the object of the present
paper being to record the facts concerning injuries observed and
reported to this Division.

INJURIOUS OCCURRENCES OF THE YEAR 1899.

Injury was first reported to this office May 17, when we received
from Mr. Thomas Bridges, Bridges, Gloucester County, Va., speci-
mens of the insect, with the report that it was destroying the pea crop
in that county. About 1,000 acres of peas were stated to be planted
there, and many farmers had already begun to plow them under. The
same day Mr. John T. Griffin, Portsmouth, Va., wrote us concerning

17591—No. 23——3

340

the same species, with the report that it was very destructive to the
pea crop in that section. May 23 we again received specimens from
Mr. Bridges, with the accompanying statement that the species had
destroyed the pea crop of that vicinity for shipping purposes, and was
then destroying the Canada field peas sowed for hay. The same day
a communication was received from Professor Johnson in regard to this
lasect, which, as this has already been treated in detail in Bulletin No.
20, need not be repeated here. A few days later, Mr. E. D. Sanderson
called the writer’s attention to this plant-louse and its injuries at Col-
lege Park, Md., when upon examination of our experimental plats of
peas growing on the Department grounds the writer found the same
species at work there.

June 2, Prof. G. Harold Powell, Newark, Del., sent specimens, with
report that this plant-louse was very abundant on the pea crop
throughout the State.

July 3 we received specimens from Mr. D. W. Watrous, East
Hampton, Conn., with the statement that ‘‘Champion of England”
peas were being injured by this insect, the plants being covered with
their numbers.

July 7 we received, through Dr. EK. P. Felt, Albany, N. Y., speci-
mens from C. J. Allen, Floral Park, Long Island, with the report
that one farmer in that vicinity had lost 14 acres and another 20 acres
of peas through the ravages of this pest.

July 28, the late Prof. F. L. Harvey, Orono, Me., transmitted
‘specimens, with the accompanying information that this pea louse had
been doing a great deal of damage to peas in Maine, several cem-
plaints having reached the experiment station. The insect was also
abundant in gardens about Orono.

August 9, Dr. James Fletcher, Ottawa, Canada, sent specimens
received from New Minas, Nappan, and Truro, Nova Scotia, and from
Freeman, Ontario. Dr. Fletcher’s correspondert from the last local-
ity wrote, ‘‘this is only a fair sampie from a 14-acre field; it looks as
though the whole crop would be lost.” August 22, Dr. Fletcher
wrote that this plant-louse attacked not only field peas but tares, and
that on the experimental farm at Ottawa it had ruined two long
hedges of sweet peas. |

August 12 we received specimens from Mr. A. Brakeley, Borden-
town, N. J., with the report that his first crop of peas had suffered
considerable injury, perhaps one-third being lost; the second crop
about two-thirds, while the third crop of 34 acres yielded only a few
hundred cans.

From October 30 to November 4 we received specimens in different
lots from Mr. Samuel R. Haynes, Portsmouth, Va., from which locality
we have previously reported it as very destructive.

Writing December 20, 1899, Mr. C. H. Pearson, of Baltimore, pro-

cee eg ee at a ee

eer orprerrentar<syer tae

badaae

ovement dei A

Vi

315)

,
prietor of the Susquehanna farm in St. Marys County, Md., stated
that during that year he had 600 acres of peas and the crop was badly
infested by this pea louse, which destroyed 80 per cent, of his crop.
This loss was a very serious matter, as our correspondent raised no
other crops except peaches.

A large proportion of the identifications of the material received
were made by Mr. Theodore Pergande, who has also kindly criticised
the accompanying illustration of this plant-louse.

THE SPECIES DESCRIBED.

The species was described by Professor Johnson in the February
number of the Canadian Entomologist of the current year (Vol. XX XII,
pp. 56-60) under the name Wectarophora destructor. Attention is
called in that article to the preoccupation of the genus Siphonophora
both in the Myriapoda and Hydrozoa, for which reason Nectarophora
of Oestlund is substituted.

This plant-louse is one of unusual size among those found infesting
garden plants, the average length of the body being about 4.5 mm., and
the total wing expanse about 11 mm. The general color of both the
winged and apterous forms is uniform pea-green, the same color as the
insect’s favorite food plant. The eyes are prominent and reddish
brown in color. The antenne are lighter than the body and tubercles
prominent; joints darker than rest of segments; seventh joint quite
filiform and fuscous. The legs are long and conspicuous; tarsi, distal
ends of tibie, and femora fuscous. The nectaries are fuscous at the
apices, otherwise concolorous with the body. 3

A typical winged female of this insect is shown in figure 9 with
wings expanded, showing venation at a, and a lateral view of the same
with wings folded in their natural position when the insect is at rest
or feeding is presented at 6. Atc an apterous or winged insect is
shown, and d shows the nymph in its last stage. The structure of the
third antennal joint of the winged form may be seen at e, highly
magnified.

THE QUESTION OF ALTERNATE FOOD PLANTS.

An effort was made by Mr. Pergande to ascertain if any common
species of weeds that were found growing late in October and early in
November could be alternate food plants of this insect, but with nega-
tive results. The plants upon which the insects were placed, but
which they deserted, were Sonchus asper, dandelion, shepherd’s purse,
Sisymbrium officinale, and dock.

Throughout the months of November and December, 1899, this or a
related plant-louse was observed and is still to be seen on the Depart-
ment of Agriculture grounds, feeding upon different species of vetches
(Vicia villosa, gigantea, ludoviciana, et al.) on the experimental plats of

36 - e

‘

the Division of Agrostology. Large colonies were at work on pleasant
sunny days in January, 1900. Many winged individuals occurred at
this time and living specimens were in fact to be found all-winter,
having been last seen March 24 or up to the time of going to press.
Unfortunately, winged individuals were not preserved, and a specific
determination can not at present be made.

NATURAL ENEMIES.

In spite of the numbers of insects of parasitic and predaceous habits
observed by Mr. Johnson and noticed in his article, it was patent to all

Fig. 9.—Nectarophora destructor: a, winged female; b, same from side with wings folded in natural
position when feeding; c, apterous female; d, nymph in last stage; e, third joint of antenna of
winged form—a-d, much enlarged, e; more highly magnified (original).

who had the species under observation that few of these had any very
perceptible effect upon lessening the immense numbers of their host
last year.

From Dr. Fletcher we received October 17 some parasites of this
species which were identified by Mr. Ashmead as Praon cerasaphis Fitch,
Aphidius fletchert Ashm. MS., and /socratus vulgaris Walk. |

A list of Syrphus fly, ladybird beetle, and other natural enemies of
this species has already been furnished by Professor Johnson in his
article previously referred to and need not receive further attention
here. From the abundance of some of these natural enemies Professor
Johnson has expressed the opinion that the insect will not again be so
injurious in many years as was the case the past season. In the vicin-
ity of the District of Columbia none of the natural enemies were at all

a | _ J ie ee

37

active during the crop growing season, and there is nothing to indicate
that we will not again be visited by this plant-louse here, especially
since this or an allied species of plant-louse, as previously observed,
was active in the field during the winter months.

It is worthy of remark that Professor Johnson kept the insect feed-
ing upon clover. Though we have been unable to find specimens on
clover in this vicinity, only one variety of common white clover grow-
ing in the garden patch where the insect was noticed, possibly they
may show greater preference for another variety of clover or other
perennial plant. Should no such plant be available in other districts,
it might be the cause of the insect’s dying out to a very considerable
extent.

REMEDIES.

Nothing new in the line of remedies has developed during the sea-
son. Our correspondents have been advised to use kerosene emulsion,
the standard remedy for plant-lice, and it has been suggested that some
benefit might follow the rotation of crops. It is a matter of consider-
able importance that the preferred alternative host plant or plants, if
such exist, be discovered, so that the insect may also be killed upon
them after their departure from the old pea vines, and that their culti-
vation may be avoided in the vicinity of peas and other crop plants
subject to injury by this insect.

A NOTE ON THE MEXICAN BEAN WEEVIL.
(Spermophagus pectoralis Sharp. )

November 15, 1899, we received from Mr. Jared G. Smith, of the
Division of Botany of this Department, specimens of a large bean,
evidently native to the place from which it was received—Lima, Peru—
and infested by the exotic Bruchid, to which the writer has applied the
name of Mexican bean weevil, and which has previously received men-
tion in recent publications of this Division as Spermophaqus pectoralis
Shp.

This adds a new locality to the list given by the writer in volume
VII of Insect Life (p. 328).

Careful comparison of the large series of this species now in the
National Museum collection with the description furnished by Schoen-
herr of Spermophagus semifasciatus points strongly to their identity.

In the year 1858 M. H. Lucas presented before the Entomological
Society of France a few remarks on the habits of S. semifasciatus,
describing the male, which was not noticed by Schoenherr, and evidently
also not known to Sharp in his treatment of pectoralis. As this com-
munication is brief and of considerable interest, a translation is given
herewith:

OS

>

I will communicate to the society several individuals of both sexes of a Cureulionid
belonging to the genus Spermophagus which destroys haricots, coming from La
Plata, and which I owe to the extreme kindness of our colleague, M. Allard. On
studying the legumes attacked by these insects it isremarked that a single haricot often
nourishes seven and even eight individuals of the Spermophagus. The larva feeds on
the germinative part of the bean, makes in it larger and smaller galleries, and trans-
forms finally into nymph. When the haricots containing these Spermophagus are
examined nothing on the exterior reveals the presence of the Curculionids; the nymph
changes into the perfect insect, and the latter, in order to issue from the cell in which it
has undergone its various transformations, cuts the pericarp of the bean, making with
its mandibles a piece more or less circular, which falls, and the perfect insect issues
very actively from its cell to go in search of the female. It is to be remarked that
often the same bean serves as the cradle of several individuals of both sexes. The
learned Schoenherr is the first who has made known this species, to which he has
given the name Spermophagus semifasciatus, Genera et Spec. Curcul. tom. I, partie
Ie, p. ili, No. 12; but he knew only the female and did not add to his careful
description the life habits of this pretty little species.

The male is smaller than the female, for it is only about 1.75 to 2 mm. in length.
It is entirely gray, more or less variable (‘‘ chatoyant’’), tending a little to reddish,
and the elytra are traversed by strive, showing a punctuation fine and not very close;
the legs and all the body beneath are of a clear ashy gray. The antenne are gray
with their first joints reddish. (Annales de la Soc. Entom. de France, 1858, bul.,
p. XXvViil.)

When it is added that this bean weevil evidently lives for successive
generations on stored beans and cowpeas in the same manner as Gruchus
obtectus, the common bean weevil, and
that it is known to inhabit Guatemala,

Peru, and Brazil, we sum up about all
that is known concerning it.

For the further identification of the
species, the illustration of the female
Fig. 10.—Spermophagus pectoralis: weevil and of an infested seed, with eges and

at right, much enlarged; Mexicanbean €Xit holes, is reproduced:

ene Hestiadvaes eos The eggs are deposited in great num-

on surface, three times natural size (au- bers on the beans recently received,

eee ces ee from 50 to 100 oneach. The eggs, when
dry, are light gray in color, nearly circular in outline, about half a
millimeter in diameter, and less than half that in depth.

It seems quite likely that this insect has already obtained a foothold
in our new possessions, where it will in time become quite as destruc-
tive as in the other countries where known to be established, and it
is almost equally probable that it will spread, with the increase of our
commerce with those countries, to the Southern States.

It has confidently been hoped that an opportunity would offer for
the further study of the Mexican bean weevil, but since the taking by
the writer of living material at Chicago, during the Exposition held
there in 1893, no live individuals have been obtained.

Nicaragua, and Panama, besides Mexico, ©

rit
5 r
© ee

elects te

39

THE CABBAGE CURCULIO.
(Ceutorhynchus rape Gyll.)
RECENT OCCURRENCE AND INJURY.

During June of 1897 Mr. B. R. Bones wrote to this Department con-
cerning damage to cabbage in the vicinity of Racine, Wis., and later,
June 20, sent specimens of the larvee of the insect concerned in the
injury, which proved to be of a species of Ceutorhynchus and the one
that has been known in American entomological literature until very
recently as C. rape Gyll.

Incidentally it might be remarked that our correspondent wrote
that the loss in his neighborhood during the fall of that year was over
2,000 tons of cabbage rotted in the field and in storehouses, this loss
being due probably to cabbage rot, which he believes is disseminated
by this insect.

August, 9, 1898, Mr. Henry J. Gerling, St. Charles, Mo., wrote of
injury to the stems of kale, which is with little doubt due to this same
species. He was, however, unable to find specimens. The plant
begins to rot just below the leaves, and this follows the stem down to
the ground. There appears a small opening in the top part of the
stem, which grows from 2 to 8 feet high, and it is hollowed out some-
times far into the ground.

During the first week of May, 1899, the beetles of this species were
observed in considerable numbers on the hedge mustard, Stsymbrium
officinale, an introduced European weed that grows almost everywhere
in meadows and in waste places in this country, and which is particu-
larly abundant in the vicinity of the Department of Agriculture. The
beetles were all observed singly at this time, preferably on plants of
advanced age that were already in flower, and were usually hiding
beneath or near the buds and flowers. Later the species was observed
on turnip and horse-radish at Tennallytown, D. C., as will be related

in detail in the account of the life history and habits of the species.
June 26, 1899, Mr. Bones sent, by request, another lot of young
cabbage plants showing injury by what is now proved beyond doubt
to be this species, by finding the larye in some of the affected stalks.
The plants were between 3 and 4 inches in height, and in many cases
the larger leaves were wilted. The stalks showed the punctures made
by the female in the deposition of her eggs, and in some cases a hole
had appeared just below the base of the leafstalk, through which the
larva, which was found within, was forcing its soft, brown castings.
Larve were nearly mature at this time, and some few had evidently
already left the plants. The burrows are quite short where only a
single larva is present in the stalk, measuring only about 7 or 8 mm.

40

in length. In figure 11, a, a stalk is opened, showing a larval burrow.
At the point where the castings are forced out, which may be the same
place where the egg was first deposited, the plant fibers become so
stretched that the scar gives to the plant the appearance of being par-
tially split open at this point. Sucha stalk is shown in the figure at 0.
Our correspondent writes that the work of the curculio was more
apparent in early seed beds. In 1898 the insects were very scarce,
and he stated that his plants did not suffer from the rot. He con-

Zz

LOLS
;

Zz

Se ,

CZ

SS
ae PtP
LZ Lt

Se Ae e
OE ESSE

Fie. 11.—Work of Ceutorhynchus rape in young cabbage: a, stalk opened to show larval burrow;
b, sear left after escape of larva from stalk—natural size (original).

siders this curculio to be the main source of inoculation of the cabbage
rot, the beetles going from sick to well plants in the seed beds.
EARLY OBSERVATIONS; REMARKS.
In the collection of the National Museum are series of specimens

labeled: ‘‘ From Allis, Adrian, Mich., seed cabbage, April;” ‘St.
Louis, Mo., horseradish, April 20” (identified by LeConte as C. rape,

January, 1876); ‘‘ From A. J. Cook, Lansing, Mich., on cabbage.”

4]

This curculio is well known as an injurious enemy to cabbage and
other cruciferous crops and has received mention as such in the
- Annual Report of this Department for 1889 by Miss M. E. Murtfeldt
(pp. 136, 137), as well as elsewhere, but has not hitherto been figured
in Departmental publications, and considerable has been learned by
the writer that has not previously been recorded.

The prediction made by Miss Murtfeldt, who stated ten years ago
that this insect gave promise of becoming a general and very consider-
able pest to our market gardeners, has hardly been realized to date,
notwithstanding its present very general establishment throughout the
Upper Austral area, as well as adjacent regions in the United States
and Canada, and in spite of evidence that the species has been estab-
lished in this country at least since 1873, as will presently be shown.

THE SPECIES IDENTIFIED.

Attention must be called to the unfortunate determination of the
species in different publications, and an endeayor will be made to
straighten out this difficulty.

According to Dr. William G. Dietz, the cabbage curculio of this
country is not the true rape of Gyllenhal, but a native American.
species and undescribed until 1896, when he gave it the name of C.
affiuentus in his revision of the Ceutorhynchini inhabiting North
America (Trans. Amer. Entom. Soc., Vol. XXIII, p. 421). He says:
**This species, erroneously known in our lists and collections as rape
Gyll., bears only a superficial resemblance to its European congener
while differing in most important structural characters.” He then
specifies the points of difference, emphasizing more especially the
unarmed femora and claws of C. rape. In the course of the arrange-
ment of the Ceutorhynchini of the national collection, Mr. Schwarz
gave this matter some study and has satified himself, as has also the
writer, that Dr. Dietz’s conclusions were erroneous. In Gyllenhal’s
- original description of C. rape, published in 1837 (Schoenherr’s Gen.
et Spee. Curculionidum, Vol. LV, p. 547), there occurs the following:
*“* femoribus parum crassis, subtus dente mediocry armatis,” and in
Thomson’s description of the same species, published in 1865 (Skandi-
naviens Coleoptera, Vol. VII, p. 271), that writer says ‘** Femora dent?-
culo armata. Unguiculi tarsorum bifidi.” In Bedel’s synopsis of spe-
cies of Ceutorhynchus (Faune des Coléoptéres du bassin de la Seine,
1885, Vol. VI, pp. 163-171) the toothed nature of the femora and the
claws of C. rape are also referred to.

Among the European material which we have had for the study of
the genus Ceutorhynchus is a specimen identified by a European
authority as rape, which is manifestly an incorrect determination,
since the femora are mutic and the claws simple. It is possible that

42

Dr. Dietz obtained his specimens of the alleged ‘‘7apw” from the same
source, and hence the unfortunate error.

For this reason it seems to be advisable to consider our cabbage cur-
culio as being identical with the European C. rape as long as the con-
trary is not proven by comparison with correctly determined specimens.

It should be added that C. napz Gyll. is entirely distinct and scarcely
to be confused with rape, except by the most superficial study. The
habits of both species of feeding upon Crucifersee were known to their
describers, as evidenced by their specific names.

European systematists have lately adopted as the spelling of this
genus, Ceuthorrhynchus; but as the original characterization by Ger-
mar gives Ceutorhynchus (Insectorum Species, Vol. I, p. 217), and no
valid reason is known to the writer for the change, the latter spelling
is retained.

INTRODUCTION IN AMERICA.

It appears probable that the cabbage curculio was introduced into
this country and had established itself at a2 comparatively early period,
and that the point of its original introduction was in New England
and not far from the coast line. As early as the winter of 1873-74
Messrs. Hubbard and Schwarz obtained specimens at Lynn, Mass.,
and at that time, Mr. Schwarz assures me, he saw specimens in the
collection of Mr. E. P. Austin, which had been collected in the same
district and prior to that date. No record appears to have been made
of the dates of earliest capture. Possibly, however, the species referred
to by Dr. A. S. Packard in an account which he gave many years ago
of what he called the ‘‘radish-seed weevil,” and which was identified
as Ceutorhynchus assimilis Payk., in his second report of the insects of
Massachusetts (Rept. Mass. Board Agr. for 1871 [1872], pp. 341, 342;
9th Rept. U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Surv. for 1875, pp. 763, 764), may
have been this insect. This is the more probable, as one of the
illustrations (made from an American specimen) fits rapw, as does
also the description. The singular identification of this insect, what-
ever it may have been, was obviously made by comparison of speci-
mens, with the description and illustrations furnished by Curtis in
his ‘*Farm Insects” (pp. 104-106). The insect was stated to have
been found in Maine in 1857 upon radish leaves, and it would
seem unnecessary to state that the identification was incorrect, since
the true C. assemilis is Kuropean and not as yet known to occur in
America.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIES.

The mature weevil measures about an eighth of an inch and is
of broadly oval form, being about three-fourths as wide as long.

43

The body is somewhat depressed above, the thorax is prominently
longitudinally sulcate or channeled at the middle, and is gradually
narrowed toward the head, near which it is constricted. The head
terminates in a rostrum or snout, which is longer than the thorax.
Near the middle of the rostrum are inserted the elbowed and clubbed
seven-jointed antenne. The femora or thighs bear each a tooth on
the ventral surface, and the claws are armed with a long, nearly bifid
Tooth 7 7

The entire body of hibernated specimens is uniformly clothed with
a light-gray vestiture consisting of piliform scales, while newly bred
individuals, as was learned by the investigations of the season, are
coated with ochreous scales. The real color below the scaly covering
is black, and the older individuals appear leaden-gray in color and
the fresher ones fulyous. Such a difference in coloration imparts to
the insect quite a distinct appearance, so obvious that Dr. Dietz has
separated the fulvous form as a variety. The elytra are longitudinally
striate, as shown in the illus-
tration (fig. 12. a). Aside
view of the insect, showing
rostrum and antenne, is
furnished at 6.

Full measurements give
the length, exclusive of
rostrum, at 2.7 to 3.25 mm. ;
width, 1.6 to 2 mm.

DISTRIBUTION.

Fic. 12.—Ceutorhynchus rapx: a, beetle; b, same in profile;
The cabbage eurculio is <¢ larva; d, head of same; e, pupa in cocoon; a, b, ¢, e, eight

5 5 . times natural size; d, more enlarged (original).
evidently abundant in its

native home, its range extending through northern and middle
Europe.

The habitat accorded by lecon te and Horn is: ‘‘Canada, Eastern
and Western States.” The exact localities from which specimens have
been taken, as exemplified in local collections and as shown by availa-
ble records, include: Lynn, Mass.; Ithaca (July 5-24) and New York,
N. Y.: West Hoboken, N. J. (Juelich); southwestern Pennsylvania
(Hamilton); Marshall Hall, Md.; Washington, Tenallytown, D. C.;
Rosslyn. Va. (May 5—June 14); Dayton, Port Clinton, Xenia, Water-
ville, and Wooster, Ohio; Glasgow, St. Charles, and St. Louis, Mo.;
Illinois (Hamilton), southern Illinois; Adrian and Lansing, Mich.;
Racine, Wis.; Kansas (Snow); Coolidge, N. Mex. (Wickham); Canyon
City, Colo.; Argus Mountains (April) and Los Angeles, Cal. The
following States are also represented without definite - localities:
Maryland, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska.

44
The species is evidently most common in the Upper Austral life
zone, although it extends into what is considered Transition. The
fact that it ranges throughout the Upper Austral zone from ocean to

ocean is another link in the chain of evidence of its being an introduced
species. 7

DESCRIPTIONS OF THE EARLIER STAGES.

The egg.—The egg is of rather large size as compared to the beetle,
and extremely irregular in outline. Of ten eggs examined, two were
broadly oval and two were subpyriform, the remainder being elliptical
oval. The color is clear, nearly transparent gray, and there is no
visible sculpture, the surface being highly polished. The consistency
is fairly firm. The length varies from 0.65 to 0.85 mm. and the width
from 0.35 to 0.45 mm.

The larva.—The larva is elongate cylindrical, when full grown
measuring about four times its greatest diameter. In color itis milk
white, with pale brown head. Its body is much less curved than is
usual in the Rhynchophora, the curvature when in natural resting
position being about as shown in the illustration (fig. 12, ¢). It tapers
abruptly and about equally at each end, the small head being of about
the same width as the anal segment. Segmentation is quite pro-
nounced at the sides as viewed from above, moderately on the venter
as viewed from the side and feebly on the dorsum. ‘The surface is
feebly wrinkled as compared with many rhynchophorous larve. The
transverse lines and ridges of the dorsal and lateral surfaces are fine
and straight. Alternating with these there are transverse rows of
minute rounded tubercles, some of them piliferous, the hairs arising
from them being extremely fine and short, so fine, indeed, as not to
be visible under an ordinary hand lens. The head (¢) is nearly circular
in outline, pale yellow in color, with brown mandibles. The V-space
and temporal suture are rather faintly defined. The mandibles are
bidentate and the surface carries a few fine short hairs like those on
the body. This larva has no appearance of leg pads as are to be
found in many Rhynchophora.

The length, curved as in the illustration, is about 5 mm., and when
_extended 6 mm., the width being about 1.3 to 1.4 mm.

The pupa.—The pupa with its snout bent downward between the
forelegs on the under surface of the ody is at once recognizable as a
Curculionid. Its color is pure milk-white, like the larva. The knees
head, thorax, and anal segments are tufted with short bristle-like sete.
These are very short and minute, much shorter than in Conotrachelus,
and arranged in pairs except on the thorax, where there are many.
There does not appear to be any at the sides of the abdominal segments
as in Conotrachelus. The length is about 4.5 nim.; the greatest width
about half that. : ;

45

A pupa is shown in its cocoon at ¢ of figure 12.

Pupation takes place in a rather regular and compact oval cocoon,
formed of particles of earth joined together, presumably by an adhe-
sive substance, perhaps including a small admixture of silk. The
cocoons are but slightly larger than the pupe, measuring about 5 mm.,
and being about 3mm. in diameter. They are formed a very slight
distance, less than half an inch, below the surface of the earth, in the
immediate vicinity of the infested plants. The pupe rest within the
cocoons, and these in turn lie in small earthern cells, from which they
can readily be dislodged intact. They are sufficiently hard and firm to
retain their shape after the issuance of the beetles.

BIOLOGIC LITERATURE OF THE SPECIES.

On the Eastern Continent Ceutorhynchus rape has apparently not
attracted any attention as an injurious species, and the writer is unable
to find in any of the more popular European publications any mention
of its attacking useful plants.

Of its fone Redtenbacher (Fauna Austriaca, Die Kafer, Volar
1874, p. 347) says that the species ‘‘ lives on Ciel za ee and in
the larval condition in the roots of this plant. The mature larva goes
into the earth and forms for pupation a small cocoon from the earth.”
If there were any way of proving the identity of the species men-
tioned by Packard (I. ce.) American biologic literature would begin
with the publication of the note in question in 1872.

In the Annual Report of this Department for 1888 (p. 186), as pre-_
viously noted, Miss Murtfeldt, formerly an agent of this Division,
gave our first ee account of this species under the heading “<The
cabbage curculio (Ceutorhynchus napz),” based upon its injuries to
-eabbage in hotbeds at Glasgow, Mo. The insect was stated to have
injured over half of 40,000 plants, and some facts in its life history
are contributed, including mention of its rearing several years before
that time from larve boring the stalks of wild pepper-grass, Lepidium
virginicum, as well as original descriptions of the egg, larva, and
cocoon.

Injury is described as being shown by the puncturing and fretting
of the plants in the crown and along the principal veins, a large pro-
portion of the plants dying from this form of attack. The plants
were stated also to be punctured in the center or at the side of the
crown, and to contain a small white grub which was boring downward
in the root, the soft castings filling the tunnel in its rear and being
often forced out through the entering fissure. The year following, the
same writer again called attention to injury by this species, mention
being made under the name of Ceutorhynchus rape. Attention was
also called to its appearance in the garden of Mr. F. M. Webster, at
Lafayette, Ind., in May of that year (Bul. 22, Div. Ent., p. 78).

46

In 1892 the cabbage curculio was again reported injurious in Mis-
sourl by Miss Murtfeldt (Bul. 30, p. 40), when it was the occasion of
‘**much loss and annoyance to market gardeners in some parts of the
State by boring into the crown and roots of young cabbage and cauli-
flower plants, in many cases destroying 25 per cent of the plants in
the hot beds and just after they are set out.”

It was noticed at this time that the insects did not trouble the plants
after the head began to form. From experiments conducted that year
this writer became convinced that the insect returns to its original
food plant, wild peppergrass, from the stems of which young larve
were obtained in July.

In 1895 Mr. Webster gave a brief notice of injuries to young cab-
bage near Dayton, Ohio (Bul. 2, n. s., pp. 90, 91), and later furnished
a more complete account (Bul. 77, Ohio Agl. Expt. Sta., pp. 50-52).
In the Canadian Entomologist of March, 1896 (Vol. XXVIII, pp.
59-61), under the title ** Ceutorhynchus napi or Ceutorhynchus rape,”
the same writer also published an article on this species, together with
illustrations of the beetle, its larva and its work.

RECENT OBSERVATIONS ON THE BIOLOGY OF THIS SPECIES.

Upon opening a stem of hedge mustard, May 5, in the locality
infested by the beetles on the Department grounds, no less than a
dozen eggs were disclosed in the first inch and a half of the stem just
beneath the flowers. They were resting in the pith, where they were
inserted through punctures made in the stem by the rostrum of the
parent beetle, the scar showing the place of deposit.

That the beetles appear much earlier, and egg deposition 1s conse-
quently earlier than the first of May, was proved by finding in the same
stem and in others toward the base numerous larve, some nearly full
grown. Injury by this weevil to cabbage at Glasgow, Mo.,as reported
by Miss Murtfeldt, was noticed the latter part of April.

May 9, 1899, in a search for this species at Tennallytown, D. C.,
the beetles were found to occur but rarely on turnips, but were more
abundant in the same garden in a bed of horse-radish. |

At about this time it was noticed that the larvee, as they approached
maturity in hedge mustard, cut holes through the stalks, usually on
the lower side of the axil of the branch or leaf-stalk. It was not
ascertained just when the larve left the stems, but from the size of the
openings toward the middle of May it is probable that some had
already begun to desert the stems to enter the earth. Stems examined
May 20 were found either to have been vacated or the larvee were just
completing their growth or preparing to cut their way out.

From what has been said of the number of eggs deposited in a stem
it follows that many larvee occur in a plant. Judging from some
examined, sixty or more larvee often find lodgment in a single stem and

AT

its branches. Larve are found most numerous in the upper portion
of stems, penetrating frequently as high as the diameter of the stem
will admit them. They also bore into the branches, and occasionally
a short distance into the leaf-stalks. In the upper portions the stem
is often completely hollowed out toward the base, the larval tunnels
growing much smaller.

In many cases the leaf-stalks are killed or so injured that they part
from the stems when the latter are pulled up; and, again, the stems,
being so closely tunnelled, often part above the middle, even dropping
over, though not handled.

By the end of the month no larve could be found in any of the
stems of hedge mustard examined, and on removing the earth from
about the bases of the stems numerous cocoons were obtained. Asa
rule, weeds seldom suffer from the attacks of injurious insects as do
cultivated plants; it is somewhat surprising, therefore, to find that
quite a number of plants of hedge mustard had been so completely

bored through in the upper parts of the stems that they cracked open, °

and the plant bent over at the point of fracture, and as a consequence
the plants were in some cases injured so that the seed did not fully
mature.

June 2 a second visit was paid to the garden at Tennallytown, D.C.,
and although the beetles had entirely vanished from our Department
grounds, numerous specimens were found here upon seed turnip, as
also larvee in the stems of turnip and in the leaf-stalks of horse-radish.
Affected plants of both turnip and horse-radish could be readily detected
by the scars left by the puncture of the beetle and by the holes made
by the larvee, but it could not be ascertained what effect the presence
of the insect had upon these crops, as the plants were plowed up when
the place was next visited.

June 10 beetles of the new generation were observed, though rarely,
on turnip at Marshall Hall, Md., this rarity being explained, at least
in part, by the absence of native food plants in the vicinity.

During the next two weeks beetles were found at work on the leaves
of cauliflower and cabbage on our experimental plats, being more com-
monly met with on the former plant, and nibbling almost exclusively
along the edges of the leaves in much the same manner as Phyllotreta
vittata.

THE NUMBER OF GENERATIONS.

It would scarcely seem necessary to devote any time to the subject
of number of generations produced annually, since with scarcely an
exception in the temperate climate of the United States the true weevils
(Rhynchophora, exclusive of the Scolytide) are monogoneutic. Never-
theless the question has been raised. To ascertain the truth, beetles of
the new generation were confined in a large rearing cage with healthy

48

potted turnip and cauliflower. On the leaves of the former they fed
freely, but no punctures were made in the stems, and no eggs or larve
were found in them, neither could they be found in hedge mustard
nor cauliflower, upon which the beetles had been seen.

Owing to the difficulty in obtaining natural conditions for the cur-
culios in confinement, the exact periods of the different stages were
not observed; but from the facts ascertained we may deduce the life
cycle with tolerable exactitude, reasoning from analogy, the ascertained
data concerning other species.

SUMMARY OF LIFE HISTORY.

The following summary is based upon observations made in the
District of Columbia upon the Department grounds:

The beetles make their first appearance some time in April and
begin the depositing of their eggs, selecting by preference for the
purpose wild-growing plants, such as hedge mustard. The parent
beetle, after copulation with the male, punctures the stem of the host
plant while the plant is still young, inserting her eggs in the holes
made. It seems probable that oviposition begins some time about the
middle of April, and continues at least a month, the parent insects
practically all dying and disappearing by the end of May, as only one
or two stragglers could be found by sweeping infested patches after
that time. |

The egg period will vary slightly, as do all the periods, according
to the temperature, between five and cight days being the approxi-
mate time. The larve feed within the stems and larger leaf-stalks, and
in about three weeks complete their growth, cut their way out, usually
near where the leaf-stalks join the stem and enter the earth. Just
beneath the surface of the earth they form little round earthen cocoons,
and within these remain for about two weeks longer before forming
the pupa. The pupal period is about the same as the egg, five to
eight days, when the mature beetle is formed and cuts its way through
one end of the cocoon and issues above ground. The first pupa
observed was found May 20, and the first imago appeared June 3 in
its cocoon. Within ten days later most of the beetles had made their
appearance in the infested locality, all at this time being readily recog-
nizable from the hibernating specimens by their darker tawny color.
On the Department grounds none of the first or hibernated generation
could be found at this time, consequently there was no overlapping
of generation. The beetles had all deserted their wild plant by the
end of the middle of June, but were still present on cauliflower and
cabbage June 21.

A noticeable feature of the observations on the Department grounds
was that cabbage, which was set out purposely in the immediate vicin-
ity of the hedge mustard, showed no signs of infestation from the

49

hibernated generation, a fact which can be utilized in the control of
this insect in the field, since if an abundance of the wild and preferred
plants be available when the insects first appear it does not seem prob-
able that cabbage would be attacked. In short, cabbage appears to
be one of the last plants attacked in the field when any other palatable
erucifer is obtainable. The beetles not only greatly preferred hedge
mustard and wild pepper grass, but appeared to attack also, by prefer-
ence, turnip, horse-radish, and cauliflower.

NATURAL ENEMIES.

One would suppose from the habit of the larva of this species of
living within the stems of its host plant that it would not be particu-
larly susceptible to parasitic or predaceous enemies, and such is prob-
ably the case. The adult insects are so minute and inconspicuous, and
drop so readily from their food plants when disturbed, that they are .
probably not often attacked, and the cocoons are very seldom invaded —
by predaceous insects. Nevertheless the larve are sometimes killed
by other insects. After a larva has made a hole in the stem, small as
it is, ingress is afforded to natural enemies. Ina stem of horse-radish
erowing in a spot where other larve of this species were found at
Tennallytown, D. C., the pupa of a Chalcidid parasite was discovered,
together with a portion of the head of the larva, leaving no doubt as
to parasitism of the species. The adult issued June 5, and proved to
be Omphale livida Ashm., the same species reared from the lepidopter-
ous borer of Lima beans, mentioned in the discussion of that species.
It was originally described from Florida in 1886 (Trans. Am. Ent.
Soe., Vol. XIII, p. 135) under the genus Oxyomorpha.

METHODS OF CONTROL.

From what we have learned of the life history of this species it
would appear that our principal reliance in its treatment lies in adopt-
ing preventive measures rather. than in the use of insecticides. It
seems quite probable that injury to hothouse plants of the nature which
has been recorded may have been due to the introduction of soil in
which the beetles were hibernating.

The utilization of wild food plants as a trap crop, etc.—lf, as hap-
pened on the Department grounds the past year, the insect on its first
appearance finds an abundance of its wild and preferred food plant,
cabbage or other cruciferous crops of the vicinity are not apt to be
affected to any observable extent. In localities where an invasion of
this beetle has once occurred, it will be well to kill the insects by pulling
up and destroying their wild food plants—not early in the season, but
as soon as the adults have deposited their full quota of eggs and before
the larvee have left the stems. The proper time for this measure of

17591—No. 23 4

50

control would be before the middle of May in a climate such as that |

of the District of Columbia and about the middle of June in the
Northern States.

Hot water; bisulphide of carbon.—In case some of the larve have
escaped before this operation is carried out, they can be killed in their
cocoons by drenching the earth about the plants with hot water. The

insects can be destroyed in hothouses in the same manner, as advised by
‘Miss Murtfeldt. If the degree of infestation does not justify the use
of hot water owing to the danger of killing the growing plants, bisul-
phide of carbon could be substituted and injected into the ground by
means of a McGowen injector, or some similar syringe in use for that
purpose, ‘or by simply pouring it about where the cocoons are found.

Arsenical poisoning.—The beetles, as previously stated, consume
quite a quantity of the tissue of the plant and feed about the edges of
the leaves in the same manner as do the cabbage flea-beetles. Where
itis found necessary to protect cabbages against cabbage worms and
other leaf-feeding insects, the Paris green or other arsenical used for
the purpose will also kill this curculio, and no other remedy should be
necessary.

Other measures. —We should, however, avoid taking earth into the
greenhouse at a time when it is liable to be infested with these insects,
and particular attention should be observed that it be not taken from
the vicinity of cruciferous weeds. If the earth be sterilized, the heat
would kill the curculios or other insects which it might contain.

It should be unnecessary to add that when the plants are found to be
badly infested they should be pulled up when their loss seems assured
and burned with their contained Jarve. The application of kainit or
other fertilizer about the roots of less infested plants would assist these
in recuperating from attack.

REMARKS ON THE FOOD HABITS OF SPECIES OF CEUTORHYNCHUS.

Forty-seven species of the true genus Ceutorhynchus, as at present
restricted, inhabit America north of Mexico, but the habits of only a
few of them are definitely known. Such of these as have been studied
live in their larval state on the Crucifere.

EUROPEAN SPECIES OF CEUTORHYNCHUS.

On the Eastern Continent species of this genus inhabit also plants
of other orders, In Europe alone 176 species have been recognized
(Catalogus Coleopterorum Europe, 1891). Of these, Bargagli (Ras-
segna Biologica di Rincofori Europei, pp. 255-267) has recorded bio-
logic observations on 58 species, and in all save in a few cases mentions
the food habits.

Among the European species of Ceutorhynchus which are enemies

© Dm ey Pe Oetine 8 A. eee te he Ae Aa -

51

of cultivated plants of the mustard family (C. sw/eccollis Gyll. and C.-
assimilis Payk., known respectively as the cabbage gall weevil and the
turnip weevil, are the most important and receive mention in most
economic works published in Europe. They injure alike cabbage, kale,
rape, and turnip.

C. roberti Gyll., according to Rupertsberger (Verhdl. zool.-bot. Ges.
Wien, 1887, Vol. XX, pp. 837-839), has similar habits to the cabbage
gall weevil attacking Raphanus raphanistrum and rape.

The above three species, together with C. cyanipennis Ill. and C.
guadridens Panz., which will be shortly mentioned, are included in a
consideration of the crucifer-feeding Ceutorhynchus in Taschenberg’s
Insekten-Kunde (Vol. I, pp. 161-166).

C. contractus Marsh., the charlock-seed weevil, is recorded to do
injury to turnip in England (Curtis’s Farm Insects, p. 106).

C. napi Gyll., like C. rape, is not mentioned in any European
popular economic works consulted, although both Goureau and Tasch-
enberg have made reference to injury by it to both cabbage and colza
“or summer rape.

THE SEED-STALK WEEVIL.

The question of the proper nomenclature, or more strictly speaking
identity of the cabbage curculio of North America with the European
Ceutorhynchus rape led to some further study of certain other forms, -
with the result that a species treated by Mr. F. A. Sirrine (Rept. N. Y.
Agr. Expt. Sta. for 1895, p. 603), and identified as undescribed by Dr.
Dietz, proves with little doubt to be identical with a European species,
C. gquadridens Panz. This species was given the name of C. sertesetosus
and described on page 422 of the Transactions of the American
Entomological Society for 1896.

The occurrence of this insect in America is evidently of very recent
date, the specimens received by Mr. A. Bolter from Nantucket, Mass.,
appearing to be the first collected, and at the present writing there is
no further knowledge of the insect’s distribution than that it occurs
in the locality mentioned and on Long Island in the vicinity of Cut-
chogue. It appears to have been first noticed on Long Island in 1895.

The exclusive occurrence of this species only on our Atlantic coast,
close to our great shipping ports, as well as the fact that thus far it is
known to attack only cultivated plants, although searched for on others,
led to the suspicion by Mr. Schwarz and the writer that it might be a
foreign importation and of recent introduction. Mr. Sirrine has
kindly sent a series of specimens of C. servesetosus for examination, and
Mr. Schwarz has now ascertained from comparisons with descriptions
and Kuropean specimens that the species is doubtless identical with the
European C. guadridens Panz., a common and widely distributed insect
in its Old World home.

52

Ceutorhynchus quadridens was given its specific name by Panzer in
1796 (Faune Germanice, Heft. 36, p. 13).’ ;

The first biologic account appears to be that given by Colonel
Goureau in 1866 (Annales de la Société Entomologique de France, Vol.
VI, p. 171). This is in connection with its development from larve
living and feeding within the roots of ‘‘navette,” or rape (Brassica
napus).

Redtenbacher (Fauna Austriaca, Vol. I]. p. 344) has mentioned its
occurrence on the same plant in Austria, and Bargagli (1. ¢., p. 264)
states that the beetles are found at Florence in April on the flowers of
Cochlearia armoracia (horse-radish), also upon cavolo (cabbage). To
this list Perris (Larves de Coléoptéres, 1877, p. £08) adds as food plants
mustard (S7napis nigra) and watercress (Vasturtium officinale).

Writing November 17, 1899, Mr. Sirrine said that he could easily
see how this pest might have been imported with the seed of cabbage,
kale, or turnips, as the adults issue on Long Island, in the neighbor-
hood of Jamaica, before the seed is gathered. The reason why the
species has not been observed in other sections of the island, however,
where the seed-growing industry is not followed, is not so clear, but
our correspondent assumes that the beetles can not obtain a foothold
in sections where the above plants are grown merely for marketing,
in spite of the fact that in most neglected fields wild radishes and
various wild mustards and other cruciferous plants grow which ought
to furnish suitable food for the beetles in all portions of the island.

This species will be seen to differ at once from the cabbage curculio
by its smaller size, being about a tenth of an inch in length; by its
subtrapezoidal form, and by the colors of its scales. These are white
and intermixed with gray hairs, the whole forming a somewhat indis-
tinct pattern, whereas rape, it will be remembered, is uniformly gray
or fulvous. The scutellar spot is prominent and the elytra are marked
by strong rows of erect sete.

CEUTORHYNCHUS CYANIPENNIS GERM.

What appears to be the first record of the occurrence of this species
in America is by the late William Juelich, in volume V of Entomo-
logica Americana (March, 1899, p. 57), ina note in which he refers to a
series of specimens taken by the writer at Ithaca, N. Y., and to others
found by Dr. Otto Lugger at Baltimore, Md. The writer first observed
this species about 1879, but there were at that time in the collection of
the Cornell University a series of this weevil taken in the same region
in the early seventies, and as near as can be remembered in 1873.

1Tt was afterwards redescribed under the same name by Gyllenhal (Schoenherr’s
Genera et Species Curculionidum, Vol. IV, p. 534), and later by different authors
under the names boraginis Gyll., calear Panz., pallidactylus Marsh, and quercicola
Marsh.

D3

Mr. H. F. Wickham has recorded this species from Idaho, Dr. Ham-
ilton (Trans. Amer. Entom. Soc., Vol. X XI, p. 405) records it from
Illinois, and Dr. Dietz (I. ¢., p. 31) states that it occurs also in California.

C. cyanipennis can be readily distinguished from any other Ceu-
torhynchus occurring in this country, except ©. bolteri Dietz, by its
color alone. Its elytra are steel blue, hence the specific name. It is
larger. than Jolter7, and has toothed claws.

In Bargagli’s reference to this species (I. c., p. 259) he gives sulci-
collis Gyll..as a synonym, but (. sulcicollis Payk. is distinct. He
refers to its occurrence on Sinapis arvensis, Capsella (Bursa) bursa-
pastoris, Achillea millefolium, cabbage, rape, and horse-radish, giving
references in full for food plants, as well as for notes on the larva
and its habits.

Although this species has been established in America for a great
many years, it has yet to be found attacking useful plants; in fact, to
the best of the writer’s knowledge, no food plant has been observed
in this country. |

FOOD HABITS OF NATIVE SPECIES OF CEUTORHYNCHUS.

Ceutorhynchus septentrionis Gyll.—At the same time that the cab-
bage curculio was observed on the Department grounds on Szsym-
hrium officinale during the first week of May, 1899, the beetles of this
species were found, but not in the same abundance, in a truck garden
at Tennallytown, D. C. They occurred in much greater abundance
than the cabbage curculio, being particularly numerous in a large bed
of horse-radish and comparatively rare on cultivated mustard. May
13 beetles were found by the score on single plants of yellow rocket
(Barbarea barbarea) at Rosslyn, Va., occurring on every plant examined.

C. adjunctus Dietz, from Utah and Nevada, has been collected by
Mr. Schwarz, on a species of Stanileya.

C. hamiltoni Dietz has been found in Massachusetts on the mari-
time plant sea rocket (Cakile americana).

ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE IMPORTED CABBAGE WEBWORM.
(Hellula undalis Fab.)

Since the article on the imported cabbage webworm, //édlula undalis
Fab., was published (Bul. 19, n. s., pp. 51-57) a number of facts have
been ascertained that are new and that bear upon the biology, distri-
bution, and probable origin of this species. An additional economic
article on this insect; by Mr. W. M. Scott (Bul. No. 1, Georgia State
Board of Entomology, April, 1899, pp. 17-25), has appeared, and the
writer has obtained access to three recently published works treating
of this species which were not before available. The insect has been
carried through its several stages, and this, with the descriptions of the

54

egg and first larval stage, will practically complete the account of the
life stages as well as can be accomplished by office experiment alone.
_ From latest information it appears that injury by this webworm was
first detected in the United States in 1895, and from what is known
of introduced insects in general it may be conjectured that it was intro-
duced at a considerably earlier period, probably several years prior to
the date mentioned, as it often requires a number of years for a species
of insect to become established after its arrival in a new country.

The receipt of specimens from other sources and the reports of
injuries in new localities go to show a much wider distribution for the
insect than credited hitherto. Its occurrence, as now ascertained. in
South Carolina and Alabama renders it more than probable that it
already ranges throughout the Gulf region, although as yet perhaps
not in troublesome abundance: except in the States mentioned and in
Georgia.

In ate other works to which reference is made, and which will later
on be cited, considerable is added to our knowledge of the insect’s for-
eign distribution; in short, it is shown that the species is already cos-
mopolitan and evidently rapidly widening its range.

ADDITIONAL LITERATURE OF THE SPECIES.

Asa result of our first article, we received a communication from
Mr. Arthur M. Lea, Government entomologist, Department of Agri-
culture, Hobart, Tasmania, who wrote under date of June 27, 1899, that
this species occurs in very destructive numbers in western Australia.
While entomologist to the agricultural department of that colony he
published several notes on the species, which he describes as being the
worst of all cabbage pests. The species was unfortunately referred
to as Lvergestis rimosalis, but subsequently specimens were identified
by Mr. Otto Lower, an Australian naicrolepidopterist, as //ellula
undalis. One of these notes is published in the Journal of the Bureau
of Agriculture, volume IV, 1 tee 1420, issued at Perth, West Aus-
ele, December IE Me Ge

In the article referred to, which is the only one of Mr. Lea’s that is
accessible at the present writing, the insect is called the ** stinking-
head moth.” Two characteristic appearances are described as being
due to the work of the larva, called, respectively, **stinking-head” and
**balloon head,” the latter being figured. ‘*In damp, on soil the
heart becomes a blackish crust, beneath which is aslimy, stinking fluid
swarming with maggots and various insects. In drier soil the outer
leaves drop off, the head dries and becomes balloon-shaped, and the
larval excrement may be seen on the stem and crown; the latter may
be knocked off at a touch; whole rows can be seen that have been so
destroyed.”

55

The remaining publications will be mentioned later on under the
head of notes on distribution.

The various accounts of the method of attack, and particularly of
the feeding of the larve reported by correspondents and recorded by
others, do not agree in every detail.

EARLY APPEARANCE OF THE INSECT IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

Through an unfortunate oversight an earlier rearing of this perni-
cious webworm was overlooked and hence not recorded.

August 10, 1896, we received from Mr. H. M. Simons, Hayfield
Farm, Charleston, S. C., larve and pup, with the statement conveyed
in a letter of August 6 that the species was very destructive to young
cabbage in that vicinity. Our correspondent had planted cabbages for
many years and had first noticed this insect in 1895, when only a few
were seen. At the time of writing it was estimated that $100 worth
of plants had been lost on account of the webworm. Many of our
correspondent’s neighbors had lost all their cabbage plants, and this
In spite of tobacco water and Paris green, the latter applied both
dry and in liquid form. The moth was stated to lay its eggs on the
upper side of a leaf, and the young larva upon hatching entered the
leaf and ate between the inner and outer sheaths, working gradually
downward.

Mr. N. L. Willet, Augusta, Ga., who furnished information con-
cerning this species and its occurrence in his vicinity in 1898, again
sent specimens the present season with accompanying letter of August
29, and the information that it was only then being noticed by its
ravages in that county. Not very much harm had been done at that
time, and our correspondent was of the opinion that the insect was
later in its appearance than in the previous year. In short, it was
difficult at that time to find larve, the truckers of the vicinity declaring
that they could not obtain the ** worms” at all.

September 12 we received another sending from Mr. Simons, with
the statement that the insect had done a great deal of damage to young
turnip plants. It was noticed that the larva in our rearing cages fed on
the common shepherd’s purse, Bursa ( Capsella) bursa-pastoris. In the
letter accompanying this last sending our correspondent stated that in
all his years of farming he had never seen such complete and utter
destruction of any crop as by this little insect. He wrote that it
attacked plants in all stages of growth; turnips just after they were
clear of the ground. He had lost his entire planting of cabbage, the
seed alone of which was worth $40.

56
NEW LOCALITIES IN GEORGIA AND IN ALABAMA.

Mr. W. M. Scott wrote September 2, 1899, concerning the occur-
rence of this moth in his State saying, among other things, that he had
received specimens from Tifton, Ga., a locality not previously men-
tioned, and that the pest was injurious that season as also in former
years. Owing to the crop about Augusta being so badly infested last
season, the truckers there planted scarcely any turnips the present
season, and for this reason, probably, the cabbage webworms were not
noticed to be very numerous in that vicinity. On an experimental
plat of Mr. Scott’s at that place, however, these insects appeared to be
as numerous as last year. .

September 9, 1899, Mr. F. S. Earle sent specimens of the larve of
this species, with the accompanying information that it was injurious
to turnip seedlings at Auburn, Ala., and had been very troublesome
for the past three seasons, its presence being noticeable in the fall of
the year. The species was stated to have practically ruined the turnip
crop in many gardens.

September 11 Mr. Thomas I. Todd, Athens, Clarke County, Ga.,
wrote of the appearance the past summer of this webworm, which he
described as very destructive on cabbage, turnip, etc., and September
18 specimens of the insect were received from the same correspondent.
Our correspondent stated that turnips once infested by being attacked
at the bud never made good growth afterwards. The species was
referred to as the ‘‘Augusta webworm.” The caterpillars were stated
to form their webs on one side of a plant near the surface of the
ground or under the end of a leaf resting upon the ground. Our cor- |
respondent had kept two hands employed since the 22d of April dust-
ing the plants nearly every day with poisons and searching for this
particular caterpillar. The loss sustained by him was placed at not
less than $250. During that season 50 pounds of Hammond’s slug
shot were used in one week without apparent benefit, and Mr. Todd
stated that if he could not check this webworm he would have to
abandon the raising of cabbages and turnips. Paris green applied in
the usual manner, dusted on the plants, was tried twice each week
without much effect. Two acres of turnips were so badly infested
that they had to be plowed under.

NOTES ON DISTRIBUTION ABROAD; SYNONYMY.

As the appearance of the species in the vicinity of Augusta, Ga.,
the only other locality besides Los Angeles, Cal., in which it was pos-
itively known to occur in this country at the date of publication of the
writer’s first article, does not appear to have been observed prior to
August, 1897, it seems probable that it was first introduced in the
region where now established in South Carolina and Georgia, near
Charleston, and at least as early as 1895, and from there has spread to

D0

the neighborhood of Augusta. Near Auburn, Ala., it has been known
since 1897.

Of the distribution of this species, Sir G. F. Hampson, in volume
IV of the Fauna of British India, published in 1896 (p. 373), says:
‘Mediterranean subregion and throughout the tropical and subtropical
zones, except the neotropical and Australian regions.” From this and
the fact that the insect does not inhabit northern or middle Europe, it
would appear that there is no immediate danger of its appearance in
the region of our country north of the Lower Austral area.

In the same writer’s Revision of the Moths of the Subfamily Pyr-
austine and Family Pyralidee, (Part I, p. 760), from the Proceedings
of the Zoological Society of London, November 15, 1898, Botys
rogatalis Hulst. is added to the list of synonyms, with this legend in
regard to distribution: ** U. S.-A.; Mediterranean mubregion: Ethio-

- pian and Oriental regions.’

The following synonymy is recognized:
Hellula undalis¥ abr., Ent. Syst., Vol. III, 2, p. 226, Herr.-Schiffer, Eur. Schmett., Vol.
IVE ple 8, fo
Scoparia alconalis Walker, Catalogue, Vol. XIX, p. 827.
Leucinodes exemptalis Walk., Catalogue, Vol. XXXIV, p. 1313.
Botys rogatalis Hulst., Tr. Am. Ent. Soc., Vol. XIII, p. 149.

In the publication first cited will be found a technical diagnosis of
the genus Hellula, as also a technical description of the species. . Both
publications are illustrated. The figure, showing wing venation and
head, are here reproduced.

OBSERVATIONS OF THE YEAR 1899.

June 19, 1899, in response to request, Mr. Simons wrote that the
moth had made its appearance in his garden, and sent us the first
specimens seen’ The moths are very rapid in
their movements when in the field, and for that
reason, difficult to capture. Cabbages had been
almost a total failure in 1897 and 1898, owing to
the ravages of this pest.

Decrease in numbers owing to cold winter.—Ot
the noticeable decrease in the numbers of this in- seen Mee nee
sect in the early summer of 1899, our correspond- _—_ antenna—enlarged (after
ent wrote, July 22, in response to our suggestion = 7°™P°°”)
that the climatic conditions were probably in great part the cause of the
decrease, that the previous winter, as with us at Washington, was
unusually severe, being marked with snaps of intensely cold weather.
This, in our opinion, as previously expressed in Bulletin No. 22 (n.s.,
p. 56), would be just the sort of weather to destroy an insect which is
not as yet thoroughly acclimatized, since such sudden changes and

severely cold spells are never experienced in the Old World regions

which this insect is known to inhabit. The same conditions doubtless

58

operated at Augusta, Ga., where the species was rare, till late in
August, as previously stated.

An unrecorded wild food plant.—In response to inquiry, Mr. Simons
~ stated that this webworm was first noticed on ** pussley,” or ** cutter
grass,” otherwise purslane, Portulaca oleracea; it was then noticed on
cabbage beds, and afterwards extended its ravages to fields of cabbage
and other crucifers. In confinement at this office larve readily fed
upon purslane. .

Mr. Simons writes that the larve feed upon the inner portion of
the leaves of young cabbages between the inner and outer integuments
or skins of the leaf, and that, when nearly full grown, they usually
spin up a web about the heart of the plant which they enter. Speci-
mens of young cabbage plants received about that time showed that
larve had entered the head singly and bored down into the stalk, their

presence there being manifested by webbed-up masses of dark exere- |

ment.

In our rearing cages the larve fed almost exclusively on the under

surface of young cabbage, the youngest eating away the epidermis
and parenchyma in small irregular patches, leaving one eroded space
and attacking another place, very often crawling in at a hole, which
they gnaw, and feeding, as our correspondent describes, between the
two outer integuments. As the larve grow larger, at about the first
molt, they begin to cover their work with webbing, and this, with the
excrement which adheres to it, forms a more or less perfect place of
concealment for them.

APPROXIMATE LIFE HISTORY.

From the material received from South Carolina the moths obtained
by rearing served as a basis for the completion of the life history of
the species as nearly as this could be done without visiting the prem-
ises where infestation occurred. |

From the received larvee, of what is at present considered the first
generation of this species, moths were obtained July 22, the approxi-
mate date of the appearance of the second brood of the insect. A very
considerable number of the remainder issued a few days later. <A
number of the moths of this lot were placed in a rearing cage July 24,
when egg deposit began. The ascertained period of the egg at this
time, as was previously stated, was three days. Pupz were first
obtained August 14, which gives eighteen days as the larval period.
The pupal period lasted six days, which brings the entire life cycle for
this time to twenty-seven days. The weather for this period was sea-
sonably hot, and this is not far from the minimum period that would
be required for development in the Southern States also.

ee ee RE oe Bi Ot

'
€
|
t

a9

THE EGG AND OVIPOSITION.

A pair of moths newly bred were placed in a vial July 24, and next
morning the female was found to have deposited singly, doubly, and
in masses of from 3 or 4 to 20, a total of 235 eggs. The following day
24 were laid; on the 27th, 37 were found, or 296 in all. Afterwards
the moth died, having laid no more. A few eggs were found upon dis-
section, making the probable number usually deposited between 300
and 350.

Most of the moths die in confinement within a week.

‘The egg.—Vhe egg is of sufficiently large size, about four one-hun-
dredths of an inch in length, as to be readily discernible to the naked
eye. It is of oval form and rather variable in contour, being usually
more or less flattened upon the surface of deposit, and there is often a
distinct nipple at one extremity. Its greatest width is about three-
fifths its length. The color when first laid is light gray, and under a
strong hand Jens the surface appears to be rugose and strongly irides-
eent. Under a higher power the surface is found to be made up of
depressed irregular areas, mostly hexagonal and pentagonal in outline.

Length, about 0.5 mm.; greatest width, 0.3 to 0.35 mm.

A day after deposition the eggs begin to take on a pinkish hue, due
to light reddish spots below the surface. On the second day the
embryo can be detected, the head showing as a blackish dot near one
end and on the lower surface of the egg or the side of attachment.

Experiments conducted in the latter days of July, in a temperature
officially rated by the Weather Bureau of this Department as moderate
(indoor 80° to 84° F.), showed that the eggs hatched three days after
deposition, a rather remarkably short period for a moth with a wing
expanse of nearly three-fourths of an inch.

THE NEWLY HATCHED LARVA.

The larva when just hatched measures about a millimeter in length
and about a twelfth that in diameter across the abdomen. The head,
as is usual with young larvee, is prominent, wider than the body, and
dusky in color. The thoracic plate is also dusky and of somewhat
similar suberescentic form to the more mature stage. The body is
very pale yellowish gray, nearly white, and the surface is moderately
clothed with long fine hairs.

Very soon after hatching the larva shows the characteristic striz of
the more mature form. Thus larve 2 mm. in length are so little
different in general appearance from the full-grown ones as to be
readily recognized as of the same species.

60
NATURAL ENEMIES.

Two new parasites of this webworm were reared during the year
and have been identified by Mr. Ashmead as Jeteorus »ulgaris Cress.
and Zemeucha (Porizon) macer Cress. °., both hymenopterous. The
former, an Ichneumonid, was reared in September from material
received from Auburn, Ala.; the latter, a Braconid, issued during the
latter days of July from larve received from Charleston, 8. C.

The Tachinid parasite Exorista pyste Walk., previously mentioned as
an enemy of this webworm, was reared October 6 from the South
Carolina lot, received in 1896, and recorded in Technical Series No. 7,
of this Division, page 14, although the host was not known at that time
by its specific name. An effort was made to ascertain the past year
if any new species of parasitic or predatory insects were useful in
destroying this webworm, but none of the several lots of larve which
were sent from different localities and kept in our rearing jars for the
purpose were parasitized. It is quite probable that in the course of
time many of the various known parasites of other crucifer-feeding
caterpillars will be found to attack this webworm, but for this we may
have to wait perhaps for several years before parasitic or other nat-
ural enemies will be of any service as mediums for its reduction.

REMEDIES.

At the present writing nothing new has developed in the line of
methods of. control. It is suggested, however, that in view of the
unusual destructiveness of this insect that some such methods as are in
use against the striped cucumber beetle be employed, for example, the
planting of an excess of seed with the aim of afterwards destroying
those plants which are injured by this webworm beyond redemption.

Cabbage and turnip appear to be the favorite crop plants affected,
though collards and radishes are also attacked; and it seems probable
that these could be advantageously used for the protection of beets
and vegetables other than Crucifere, which future observations will
probably show are affected by the insect. The trap crop should be
freely sprayed with Paris green, and the main crop could be sprayed
with kerosene emulsion. Mr. Simons writes that a mixture of kero-
sene oil and soap sprayed upon the plants served asa deterrent against
the moth, but that they returned as soon as the odor of the kerosene
had become dissipated. Kerosene emulsion properly prepared and
applied often enough to insure a permanent odor should be effective.

One point must be emphasized if we expect to meet with success in
combating this insect, and this is that work must begin upon the first
appearance of the insects each season, as what is done then will very
materially affect injury for the entire year. Injury might be consid-
erably lessened if a practice were made of pulling up and destroying

61

all badly infested plants before the issuance of the first new brood of
moths. From current reports during the year it would seem that the

proper time to begin this work is about the
middle of July, as the larvee are then nearly
mature and the moths appear soon afterwards.

THE COMMON RHUBARB CURCULIO.
(Iixus concavus Say.)

Residents of the Eastern States who are

familiar with the appearance of growing rhu-

barb or pieplant (hewn rhaponticum) can
not fail to have noticed that stalks here and
there are often injured, so that the juice ex-
udes and, drying, forms clear tear-like drops.
Closer examination will show that these drops
exude from holes gnawed by an insect, and if
one should seek the culprit he will not be long
in tracing the cause to a large rusty-coated,
long-snouted beetle known as Liaus concavus
Say, and which we may call the common rhu-
barb curculio to distinguish it from another
closely related species, Z. mucidus, which has
similar habits.

May 9, 1899, the great numbers of beetles
of Lixus concavus ina plat of rhubarb at Ten-
nallytown, D. C., attracted the writer’s atten-
tion and led to further study of its life econ-
omy and the preparation of the present paper.
Almost every stalk of rhubarb had been
attacked and some so badly as to interfere
with their sale, at least to many would-be pur-
chasers. One of these stalks served as the
model of the illustration here presented as
figure 14.

According to the published statement of
Mr. F. M. Webster (Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash.,
Vol. I, p. 339), the insect treated by Dr. C. M.
Weed in publications of the Ohio Agricul-
tural Experiment Station (Bul. No. 6, Vol. IT,
p. 153, and Bul. No. 8, Vol. ILI, 2d series, pp.
932-235) under this name is not the true con-

————

Cy

—S

St Xe

Fig. 14.—Stalk of rhubarb injured
by Lixus concavus—reduced one-
fourth (original).

cavus, but mucidus. The investigations which have been conducted
during the year, however, indicate that this is a matter of scientific

62

interest rather than of economic importance, as the two species show
close similitude in the details which go to make up their life histories.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIES.

The adult.—The adult or mature form of this insect is a snout-
beetle or curculio of the typical rhynchophorus family, Curculioni-
dee. It is one of the largest species of its kind, measuring from the
tip of its long snout about three-fourths of an inch in length and
is about three-sixteenths of an inch in width. The body and head
together are about five-eighths inch long and the snout nearly three-
eighths. The snout is cylindrical, black in color, and grooved on the
sides for the reception of the scape of the antenne. From other
related genera the species of Lixus may be distinguished by the polli-
nose substance with which their bodies are covered. The covering of

qatrtt tte tr,

Fic. 15.—Lixus concavus: a, beetle; b, egg; c, newly hatched larva; d, full-grown larva; e, pupa in
profile, showing dorsal motorial spines; j, dorsal view of last abdominal segments of pupa—all about
twice natural size (original).

Linus concavus is very bright yellow, and the writer has kept hiber-
nated specimens for two or three months that retained this pollinose
covering, which he considers pubescence. It readily rubs off, how-
ever, when the insect is handled. The elytra are of remarkably firm
consistence, so hard, in fact, that it is difficult to impale the beetle
with an ordinary insect pin. From other species of the genus, con-
cavus is to be distinguished by the deep triangular concayvities at the
bases of the thorax and elytra. The prothorax is just perceptibly
wider than long, moderately rounded at the sides, and distinctly con-
stricted apically. |

In the male the snout is shorter and the antenne are inserted about
one-fourth from the apex, while in the female they are placed about
one-third from the end. The female is represented in figure 15 at a.

Linus mucidus, the only other species known to attack rhubarb, is

63

larger and more robust, with stouter snout. The body is clothed with
fine gray pubescence.

DISTRIBUTION.

LeConte and Horn merely credit this species to the Atlantic district.
From specimens in the National Museum and other local collections
and from published and divisional records the following list of locali-
ties is taken:

Stratford, Conn.; Buffalo, Ithaca, Long Island, New York, N. Y.;
‘*‘more or less common throughout the State” of New Jersey (Smith);
Blooming Valley and elsewhere in Pennsylvania; Columbus, Ohio;
District of Columbia; Cabin John, Marshall Hall, River View, and
Travilah, Md.; Rosslyn, Va.; Cadet and elsewhere in Missouri; New

Ross and Lafayette, Ind.; Detroit and Port Huron, Mich.; Lawrence,
Kans.; Iowa City, Iowa (Wickham); Retreat, N. C.; Lake Ponchar-

train (Summers) and elsewhere in Louisiana; Minnesota (Lugger);
Grimsby, Ontario, Canada (Pettit).

This is a surprisingly short list of localities considering how com-
mon the species is known to be. It is obviously an Austral, or, more
properly speaking, Carolinian, orm, being found apparently in much
greater abundance in the Upper than in the Lower Austral life zone.
It also occurs in the Transition, but in the Transition of the Middle
West, as for example in northern Illinois, it is replaced to a consider-
able extent by ZL. macer, while in Texas it gives place to ZL. leszcollis
and other species. Its known western range does not extend beyond
the Mississippi Valley. :

DESCRIPTIONS OF THE EARLIER STAGES.

The egg.—The egg is of somewhat variable oval form, the usual
proportions of width to length being about four-sixths, the extreme
reaching five-sixths; surface smooth, polished, with no visible sculp-
ture; color dull, pale yellow; contents completely filling the shell,
leaving no translucent spaces at ends; consistency of moderate firm-
ness. Length, 1.50 to 1.90 mm.; width, 1.25 to 1.30 mm. An egg is
shown in outline in figure 15 at 0.

The newly-hatched larva.—TVhe larva when just hatched presents the
appearance of ¢, figure 15. The head is extremely large in proportion
to the remainder of the- body, the mouth-parts, particularly the man-
dibles, being especially prominent.

The mature larva.—The larva when fujl grown .appears as shown
at d. It measures, when in the curved position common to the Cureu-
lionid: and shown in the figure, about 10 mm. When fully extended
the length is about twice that, 21 to 23 mm., according to Webster.
The width is between 4and 5mm. It is of nearly cylindrical form,

64,

flattened on the extreme ventral surface. The color is milk white, the
head being light brown and the mandibles dark brown, nearly black.
The first thoracic segment is marked with a light yellow transverse
- chitinous patch resembling the cervical shield of many caterpillars.
The head is nearly circular in outline, and is ornamented by an inverted
Y mark. The mandibles are short and strong, concave on the inner
surface, and bidentate at the tips. The leg pads are moderately promi-
nent, and rather sparsely covered with short yellow bristles. With
the assistance of the figure a more detailed description may be dis-
pensed with. Full descriptions both of larva and pupa have been
published by Mr. Webster in his article in Entomologica Americana
(Vol Napisy

The pupa.—The pupa shown in the illustration at ¢ in profile is of the
same white color as the larva. It is somewhat remarkable on account
of the row of retrorse spines on the back of each abdominal segment.
The first or cephalic row consists of shorter and finer spines, and the
last row of only four, in pairs on each side of the middle (see fig. 15, 7).
The terminal segment ends in two spinelike processes on the ventral
side. The length is 14 to 15 mm.

The pupa cells are broad and ample, varying somewhat in length
from two to three or four times the length of the pupa itself. Cells
before the writer measure from 5 to 7 mm. in width and from 25 to
4) mm. in length. By means of the rows of spines on its back the pupa
is enabled to work its way readily up and down from one end of its cell
to the other.

The majority of the cells examined were constructed just beneath
the surface of the earth, the top of the cell lying level with the earth’s
surface. Cells often, therefore, extend into the roots and appear to be
deepest where the plants are short and dry, and dry up early. No
special point appears to be selected by the larva for gnawing away an
exit place for the imago, but the stem is so weakened near the bottom
of the cell that it breaks at this point if pulled, and it doubtless cracks
and breaks in time with the drying of the plant, so that the beetle
when fully matured and ready for exit has no difficulty in effecting its
escape.

BIOLOGIC LITERATURE.

For so common an insect as is this curculio, published accounts bear-
ing on its habits and life history are few in number.

The first notice of its food habits is that given by Townend Glover
in the Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for the year 1865
(1866, p. 90). Reference is there made to the beetle having been
observed ** burrowing into the footstalk of the rhubarb or pie plant and
then depositing a single egg in each hole.” No larvee were reared, but
the opinion was expressed ‘‘that if the yellow decaying leaves of the

65

rhubarb were examined many of them would be found to have been
injured by this insect.” Five years later the same writer, in his report
as Entomologist (loc. cit., 1870 [1871], p. 71), gives another short
account of this insect, with an illustration of the adult.

After the lapse of another five years Dr. George Dimmock (Standard
Natural History, Vol. I, p. 343) refers briefly to the occurrence of
the species on the dock Rumen orbiculatus.

Discarding the two articles of Weed for the reason previously
mentioned, we come to the very full account of this insect by Mr.
Webster, published in Entomologica Americana in 1889 (Vol. V, pp.
12-16). In this article wild sunflower (Helianthus) is mentioned as a
food plant in central Illinois. The egg, larva, pupa, and oviposition
are fully described, and other notes are given on the life history of the
species. It is quite singular that larvee in this case were found only
in Helianthus, a genus of plants upon which the insect has not been
observed by any other writer to my knowledge. On page 16 of the
article referred to Mr. Webster states that in a single case he observed
a female ovipositing in Silphium, or rosin weed, and states that the
adults feed also upon the foliage.

In volume VI of Entomologica Americana (p. 169) the writer re-
ferred briefly to the occurrence of this species on a common broad-
leaved variety of dock (Rumex) and less often on rhubarb.

In Mr. Webster’s article on the food plants of the genus (Proc. Ent.
Soc. Wash., Vol. I], pp. 339-341) nothing new is added of this species
other than the correction referred to in the opening lines of this article.

DIVISIONAL RECORDS.

May 18, 1883, we received from Mr. J. G. Barlow, Cadet, Mo., a
leaf of rhubarb showing punctures of this curculio on the midrib.

November 25, 1885, Mr. F. M. Webster sent from Lafayette, Ind.,
stems of Helianthus from which this insect was later reared.

May 19, 1887, we received from Mr. W. B. Alwood, then at Colum-
bus, Ohio, stems of rhubarb in which this species had oviposited.

June 5, 1895, Mr. F. V. Braymer, Blooming Valley, Pa., sent speci-
mens of the beetle discovered on the yellow dock. June 20 Dr. Homer
Bowers, New Ross, Ind., sent beetles, with report that they were
observed on the foliage of growing rhubarb.

July 26, 1896, Mrs. R. H. Russell, Stratford, Conn., reported find-
ing this species upon a dwarf sunflower in her garden.

May, 1898, Mr. F. M. Webster reported receiving this insect, with
a species of Sphenophorus or ‘*bill bug,” with statement that they
were injurious to corn. We have also received similar reports, the
beetles being included with Sphenophorus. This is merely mentioned
to show that there is some slight similarity between the species of

17591—No. 23—_5

66—

Lixus and Sphenophorus, these genera being of about the same aver-
age size, but not at all likely to be mistaken by anyone who studies the
subject of entomology.

FOOD PLANTS.
As already shown, this species does not develop in rhubarb. The

only larval food plant observed by Mr. Webster in central Illinois
and Indiana was wild sunflower, /elianthus grosseserratus, a common

Western plant. In and about the District of Columbia, as well as in-

the vicinity of New York City and Ithaca, N. Y., this curculio was
observed only on rhubarb and dock, and the latter is the favorite and
apparently the only larval food plant about Washington. It is prob-

able that all species of Rumex having suitable stems for the develop-

ment of the larva are utilized for this purpose. The species from
which the beetles have been reared are curled dock (/tumex crispus)
and broad-leaved or bitter dock (2. obtusifolia).

Linus concavus is the only species observed on Rumex or rhubarb in
this vicinity.

The adult of this curculio feeds upon the foliage of all of the plants
mentioned, usually by gnawing the edges of the leaves, but it seems
probable that a considerable quantity of nourishment is also taken
when the stems are punctured for oviposition, if indeed they are not
often punctured, as seems most likely, for food alone.

THE INSECT’S LIFE HISTORY.

LITibernation and time of appearance.—This rhubarb curculio hiber-
nates as a beetle in and near the District of Columbia, and is one of
our early arrivals, appearing in the field some time in April, presuma-
bly with the appearance of its food plant, or about the time that the
stems are large enough for oviposition. Pairing and egg deposit
begin soon afterwards. |

From the scarcity of beetles in the field after the dying out of the
hibernating generation in the summer, the writer had formed the
opinion that beetles overwintered in the stalks, and particularly
because Mr. Webster had found that hibernation also took place in
other stages (larva and pupa) in the localities where he had made obser-
vations. It was therefore surprising that in spite of several attempts,
made at intervals between the second week of September to the second
week of October to find beetles, none could be found in stems in which
there was evidence that they had developed.

A beetle that issued August 12 was kept for upwards of two months
without food. October 18 a beetle was captured in the field that had
evidently been flying, and this, together with the beetle reared in con-

finement, were placed in a jar with dock leaves October 18. The latter

67

died in a day or two without feeding, while the other fed freely in the
accustomed manner on the edges of the leaf. ;

Everything considered, this is tolerably good evidence that, in spite
of the rarity of the beetle of this species in the field or the difficulty of
finding it in autumn, it does, at least occasionally and perhaps nor-
mally, issue from its burrows to feed before seeking a new place for
hibernation.

ON THE HABITS OF THE SPECIES.

The eggs are deposited singly in little oval or elliptical cavities meas-
uring about 2 mm. in width and 4 or 5 mm. in length, and constructed
in the stems at a depth of between 2 and 3 mm. beneath the skin. In
thin stems of dock the
egg is deposited loosely
through the hole made
by the parent beetle in
the hollow of the stalk.

Egg deposit evidently
takes place by pret-
erence in the young
flower-stalks, but as it
is the custom of many
gardeners to cut these
off early in the season,
the beetle is forced to
lay her eggs in other
parts of the plant; hence
it follows that eges are
quite as often found in
the main stems, the
crown of the plant, and. ee se
Be eens 2 Be eeadig sk fad oft tata, ores
of the leaves. A great
many more punctures are made in the stems of rhubarb, particularly
early in the season, than are necessary for deposition of eggs. In the
section of rhubarb stalk illustrated at fig. 16, taken from the field in
early May, all of the punctures appear to have been made either for
food or else the insect was deterred from depositing her eggs by the
presence of too copious exudations of juice.

In dock the egg punctures occur from near the bases of the stems
far toward the tops, and nearly always contain eggs or larve. Dock
stems sometimes contain as many punctures as in the rhubarb stem of
the figure. Later in the year, even by the first week of June, eges
are nearly as often found in rhubarb, particularly in the flower-stalks.

The species of Lixus are long-lived, and it follows that oviposition

68

extends over a considerable period. Here in the District of Columbia

the present year the first beetles that were noticed appeared late in

April.’ Larve were first noticed hatched May 11, but eggs were still
to be found late in June. |

Eggs deposited May 11 and 12 hatched May 19 and 20, or in eight

days, the weather during this time being seasonable.

Larval habits.—The plants of dock on the Department grounds upon
which beetles were placed were carefully watched and the stems and
roots were pulled up for examination from time to time, but, unfor-
tunately, the ants which were associated with aphides at the roots
entered the burrows and killed the larve, thus interrupting our
experiments. Stems of dock were also examined in the neighborhood
about the District of Columbia and larve were found to approach
maturity during the first and second weeks in July. July 22 an imma-
ture beetle was found in its burrow, larve and pupze also being present
in that vicinity at this time. The duration of the larval stage, although
not definitely ascertained, is not far from two months.

It is probable from all that could be learned that larvee begin to
approach maturity about the first or second week of July.

Beetles put in our rearing cages inearly May lived through June
till about the middle of July, some, however, dying earlier; in other
words, some of the hibernated beetles are still living within a few days
of the time of the first appearance of the new generation.

In the stems of dock examined, only a single Lixus was found to
develop ina stem. Often a dozen or more punctures are made in a
stem and nearly as many eggs are deposited in some cases, but one
larva only develops. What becomes of the other larve is a problem.
Presumably they fall a prey in many instances to predaceous insects,
particularly ants, but when they are not. so destroyed it would seem_
that they either die from being shut off by the larva nearest the roots
into the upper portion of the plant, where they succumb with the dying
of the stem, while the lowest larvee, having an abundance of moist
food, survives. Very often the larvee bore down into the root, evi-
dently being driven to this expedient by the drying of the stems above.

Life cycle still incomplete.—From the above it will be seen that the
full life cycle is not yet known. The egg stage, as previously observed,
was eight days in seasonable May weather. The observed duration of
the pupal period in the hot weather of July was also eight days. The
observations on the life cycle period, and hence the larval period, which
could readily have been made out by deduction, were interrupted by
the ants. ;

The species does not appear to develop in rhubarb.—lf the larva lives
at all in rhubarb this fact has escaped observation. Many eggs fail to

'This is true, also, of L. mucidus, according to Weed.

69

hatch, presumably being destroyed by the superabundance of juice
which exudes from the plant where egg deposit takes place, while the
larvee, if they hatch at all, meet death in the same way.

Of all of the many thousands of eggs of this species that were
deposited within a few miles of the District of Columbia it is obvious
that only hundreds produced beetles. None that were deposited in
rhubarb appeared to develop. <A large percentage that were laid in
dock and that produced larvee also died before attaining maturity. In
addition to ants, parasitic insects must have destroyed their quota of
larve. So it follows that, taking into consideration the number of
beetles that fail to survive the winter, the species, compared with
many others that could be mentioned, leads quite a precarious existence.

NATURAL ENEMIES.

Mr. Webster, writing of this curculio in stems of Helianthus,
remarked that a great many of the larve were devoured by wood-
peckers. Dr. Weed recorded the rearing at Columbus, Ohio, of a
hymenopterous parasite of Lixus mucidus, Bracon rugator Say. These
parasites develop at the expense of the larve, feeding externally upon
them. When mature they spin brown silken cocoons in which to
transform. As several Braconids are known to be parasitic on other
species of Lixus feeding like the present one in stems, it is probable
that one or more species attack Livus concavus.

REMEDIES.

‘The use of arsenicals or other poisonous insecticides upon rhubarb
during its growing season is of course out of the question. Fortunately
the nature of the injury by the species is not as a rule serious. When,
however, this curculio occurs in troublesome numbers it can readily
be controlled by other methods. The beetles are so large and con-
spicuous, and so often occur freely exposed in the bright sunlight on
the leaves, that they are easily detected, and as they are sluggish and
do not fly readily there is no difficulty in capturing them. The proper
time for this is upon the beetles’ first appearance. It would be well
also to gather the beetles upon near-by plants of dock, and after the
egos are deposited these plants should be pulled up and burned. In
the District of Columbia and in similar latitudes the beetles are to be
looked for toward the end of April and first of May, and the docks
which serve as a trap crop should be destroyed about the first of
July, as most of the eggs have been deposited by that time.

70

THE STRAWBERRY FLEA-BEETLE.
(Haltica ignita Il.)

One of the periodical visitants of the strawberry bed, and an insect
that can, in its periods of abundance, prove quite troublesome, is a
Chrysomelid beetle, known in literature as the strawberry-leaf flea-
beetle, or fiery flea-beetle. It has also been called the apple flea-beetle
and the lesser grapevine flea-beetle, and is now known scientifically
as [faltica tgnita Ill., though often mentioned in text-books and agri-
cultural works under the name of Graptodera iqnita.

The periodicity of attack of this insect, coupled with the fact that it
is not confined to strawberry, but feeds on a variety of other plants,
including weeds—its natural and preferred larval food plants—render
it unlikely that it will ever be-
come of the highest impor-
tance. Of its capabilities for
destruction more will be said
under the chapters devoted to
recorded injuries and litera-
ture and unpublished records
of injuries.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIES.

The. strawberry flea-beetle
belongs to the typical genus
Haltica, of the tribe Halticini,
or flea-beetles, a genus which
Fic. 17.—Haltica ignita: a, beetle; b. egg mass on bit of includes 24 described species,

leaf; c, newly-hatched larva; d, first abdominal seg- ost. of them of a uniform
ment of same greatly enlarged ; e, larva; f, pupa—all 3
except d about eight times natural size (original). greenish or bluish color, and
all provided, as are other flea-
beetles, with powerful, dilated hind femora. By means of their strong
hind-legs the beetles possess an unusual saltatory power, which has
given them the common name of flea-beetles.

[laltica ignita was given its scientific name by the German ento-
mologist Illiger in the year 1807 (Magazin fiir Insectenkunde, Vol.
VI, p. 117). It was described later under the specific names alice
Melsh. and znewrata Lec., and mention is made by Melsheimer and
LeConte of two MSS. names, cuprea Melsh. and splendida, by which
the species was also known in collections.

The various species of Haltica are difficult of determination without
the aid of full descriptions and a large series of specimens, including
the males. //. cgnita is one of the smaller species and belongs to the
same group as the grapevine flea-beetle, HZ. chalybea, which has the
thorax with an antebasal groove extending entirely across. In the

(el

present species the groove appears to vanish at each end, but this is
apparent only. The punctuation of the elytra is coarse. The general
appearance of the insect is illustrated at figure 17, a. It is of oval,
slightly oblong form, and is remarkable on account of its extreme
variability of coloration, the color of different individuals ranging
from bright metallic golden, coppery, golden brown or purplish, to
green and blue. The variation in color is of unusual interest, as it is
influenced by climate and determines to a great extent the range of
the species, this fact being so striking as to have attracted the writer’s
attention long ago and to have received special mention by Dr. Horn.
The more northern individuals are the more brilliant golden-hued
ones. About the District of Columbia the green ones are apparently
more abundant, and are the prevailing types southward, deep blue
becoming the characteristic color of the specimens taken in the Gulf
States. It may be significant that the beetles observed by the writer
before the middle of August the past season were mostly green and
those observed in the same locality after that date were metallic. The
latter, however, are not nearly so brilliant as those occurring farther
north. The Northern individuals are, as a rule, larger than the
Southern ones. :
DISTRIBUTION.

The strawberry flea-beetle is a native American species and of such
remarkably wide distribution as to have created remark by Mr. Mar-
tin Jacoby, a European authority on Chrysomelide.

The distribution of this species accorded by Horn, who gave a full
technical description on page 221 of the Transactions of the American
Entomological Society for 1889 (Vol. XVI, p. 221), is from the Hud-
son Bay region to the New England States, south to Texas and Florida.

The following locality list has been compiled from published ana
unpublished records, the latter, which includes most localities men-
tioned, being founded on material in the National Museum and the
writer’s own collection. It shows a range extending from ocean to
ocean and from north to south of Canada to Mexico.

Newport, R. I.; Ithaca (July 5-9), Peekskill, Port Richmond, Staten
Island (June 3), Carys Mills, Floral Park, N. Y.; Orange (at light),
Highlands (June 18), and elsewhere throughout New Jersey; River
View, Goldsboro, Marshall Hall, Md.; Norfolk, Rosslyn, Cherry Dale
(June 3—July 11), Va.; District of Columbia; St. Louis, Mo.; West
Point and Nebraska City, Nebr.; Columbus, New Albany, Indianapo-
lis, Ind.; White Bear Lake, Minn. (Lugger); Waco, Cypress Mills, and
Beeville, Tex.; Tempe, Ariz.; Orlando, Oviedo, Lake City, Valkaria,
Waldo, Fla.; Easton, Wash.; Colorado; Sacramento, Cal.

To the above list there should be added: Atoyac and Vera Cruz,
Mexico (Jacoby); Fort Simpson (LeConte) and Fort Rae (Wickham),
Northwest Territory, Canada.

72
DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PREPARATORY STAGES.

The egg.—Vhe egg is subcylindrical, and in outline rather irregu-
larly elliptical, being about two and one-fourth times as long as wide
at its greatest diameter. From the egg of Disonycha wanthomedena,
a flea-beetle which was figured and described in its different stages in
Bulletin 19, n. s. (page 81), and which it somewhat resembles, it differs
in having the ends reversed. It is narrower at the base, where it is
somewhat irregularly rounded and longitudinally wrinkled on one or
two exposures and is broader and more rounded at the apex. The color
when newly deposited is pale yellowish buff, changing but little before
hatching. The surface is opaque and the sculpture recalls that of
Disonycha, but is more or less obsolete, in some eggs being very
indistinct.

Length, 0.72 to 0.78 mm.; width, 0.32 to 0.35 mm. -

The eggs are deposited in groups of two or three to twenty or more,
side by side, in the manner shown in the illustration (fig. 17,4). They
are rather firmly attached at their bases and lie upon the leaf nearly
flat, but with their avical ends free. A very large proportion of the
egos obtained in confinement were streaked lengthwise with a thin
line of excrement, and this would appear to be a normal habit of the
female of voiding a small quantity of her faeces on each egg.

The newly hatched larva.—The larva when just hatched has the
appearance represented atc of figure 17. It is subcylindrical in form
and rather dull, dirty-looking honey yellow in color. It tapers
strongly toward the posterior extremity and is widest near the middle._
The head is large and prominent, with prominent three-jointed, conical
antenne. The legs are long and the body is covered with long gray
and black hairs. The hairs proceeding from the head, and the longest
of those which proceed from the sides of the prothorax and the lower
portions of the sides of the abdominal segments, are normal and
pointed. The majority of the remainder—those on the sides of the
thorax and abdomen and at the ends—are bulbous or capitate, as is
often the case with post-embryonic larve. The hairs proceed from
tubercles which are only moderately prominent as compared with
those of other related species. The second and third thoracic seg-
ments bear above two pairs of rather conspicuous black tubercles. The
dorsal tubercles are also mostly black, small, and rather inconspicuous.
The hairs proceeding from these are also black. The anal proleg is
large and prominent and assists the larva in locomotion.

Length, 0.9 mm.; width, 0.4 mm.

The mature larva.—The larva resembles that of Haltica chalybea,
the two possessing many features in common. That of ¢gnita, when
full grown, varies somewhat as regards the ground color, some few
being dull yellowish, but more often the general color is dark olive,
sometimes so nearly black that the tubercles can scarcely be dis-

73

tinguished, giving to the body a nearly uniform dull black color.
The shape is subeylindrical, well-rounded above and depressed ven-
trally. The body tapers about equally toward either extremity, the
diameter being greatest near the middle. The length is about four
times the width. The surface of the body, both above and below, is
very finely guttulate and very closely covered with large, dark tuber-
cles, or tuberculous spots of various shapes. Some are single and
some confluent, and bear, some one and some two hairs, the various
patterns which they form on the dorsum being indicated in the illus-
tration. All the tubercles appear black on the living larva, but in
alcohol they turn dull greenish brown.

The head is rounded in outline, the lobes moderately constricted
posteriorly and are indicated by a wide, shallow, median depression.
The color is moderately shining black, with white sutural lines show-
ing about the antennez and mouth-parts, the inverted
V mark is white and very thin. The hairs, which pro-
ject a few forward and a few diagonally from its sur-
face, are dark brown. The antenne are black, and
very short. The three pairs of thoracic legs are
mostly black, like the antennee on the exterior surface,
and mostly gray on the interior, being for the most
part gray toward the base and black apically.

The thoracic plate is of the same ground color as the
other tubercular surfaces but spotted with dark brown,
and is surmounted with similar hairs. It has some- F! peed: is
what the appearance of being made up of several ewierieeene a
smaller tubercular spots. The median tubercles of Pe ee eae
the second and third thoracic segments are simple, sal view of anal
but those of the abdominal segments are confluent See Be eae
and form an elongate, oblong transverse band. The criginal).
anterior confluent pairs are about a third wider than
the posterior. The tuberculiferous spots of the second and third tho-
racic are separated above by a narrow line moderately curved pos-
teriorly.

The tubercular spots of the abdominal segments are arranged in
moderately regular rows of eight; those above the spiracles being
arranged in double and parallel rows; those below in single rows. All
tubercles are prominent, the lateral being the largest and the dorsal
the smallest. The tubercles above the spiracles bear each a single hair,
blunt at the apex; the tubercles below the spiracles bear each two
acutely pointed hairs, placed closely together.

In figure 18 the arrangement of the tubercles on the ventral sur-
face of the first and second abdominal segments is shown above, and a
dorsal view of the anal segment is given below. The anal proleg is
moderately prominent and nearly white on its exposed surtace.

2

74

Length of full grown larva extended, 5 to 5.6 mm.; width, 1.3
to 1.4 mm.
_ The pupa.—The pupa (fig. 17,7) in its structure presents no very
observable characters for recognition. It looks like that of Disonycha
xanthomelena but differs in color. It is quite differently colored from
its larva, being rather pale orange, with lighter yellowish orange head,
legs, and wing-pads. The surface is rather sparsely beset with short,
fine, acutely pointed hairs, light at their insertion and nearly black at
the apices. These proceed from small, dark, rounded, moderately
prominent piliferous warts or tubercles, in the arrangement of which
there should be found good generic, if not specific, characters. One
of these tubercles is located on the head near the inner angle of each
eye, and another is placed above it and a little nearer the median line.
A transverse row of hairs proceeds from the posterior end of each
abdominalsegment. The abdomen terminates in a pair of apical hooks,
which are moderately acutely pointed and rather strongly incurved,
nearly white in color at the base and black upon the posterior moiety.
There is also on the ventral surface at each side of the anal aperture a
minute tubercle.

Length, 3 mm.; width, 1.6 mm.

PUBLISHED BIOLOGIC RECORDS.

In the year 1847 Dr. F. E. Melsheimer gave to this insect the specific
name of kalmiev from its occurrence on the laurel, Aalmia latifolia
and glauca (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., Vol. III, p. 164).

What appears to be the earliest record of injury to any useful plants
by this species is that published in Volume III of the American Ento-
mologist in 1880, and reported by Mr. G[eo]. T[hurber]. The beetles
were described as having injured fuchsias at Norfolk, Va., in June of
that year, when they swooped down *‘in a cloud,” and in two hours
ruined over 600 blooming plants; no other plants were noticed to be
affected. Paris green killed the beetles, but unfortunately also injured
the plants so that they could not be sold. In the answer to this letter
by Dr. Riley, the species is identified as Graptodera carinata Germ.,
and the present identification of the species as zgv7ta is on the authority
of Mr. Schwarz. Incidental mention is made of the species having
been found very injurious to fuchsias at St. Louis in 1874, and that: it
attacks also many other greenhouse plants. First appearance was
noticed during the month of June. The egg was briefly described.
The beetles were also stated to often swarm on fireweed (Lrichthites
hieracifolia). Pyrethrum ‘‘ numbed” the insects and kept them off
the plants until it was necessary to water them again. Beetles were
reared from larve found feeding on evening primrose ((@nothera
biennis).

Jt was not until a decade of years prior to the time of writing, so

Pus a Fash

75
far as can be ascertained, that anything was published concerning
injury by the species to strawberry or other edible crops. In the
year 1889 there was published in Insect Life (Vol. I, pp. 220, 221) a
note from correspondence on injuries by the beetle to the tender leaves
of grape at Tempe, Ariz., in April, 1886.

This was followed the next year by several publications concerning
this flea-beetle, which will be briefly mentioned :

A line note on the occurrence of the species on Kalmia, at Peekskill,
N. Y., early in May, by Mr. John D. Sherman, jr. (Proc. Ent. Soe.
Washi Vol. 1p: 162):

A second letter from the correspondence of the Division (Insect
Kate; Vol; MW, pp. 369, 370); a complaint of injury by Mr. Wo oR:
Hudson, Orlando, Fla., March 27, 1890. The beetles appeared on this
correspondent’s strawberries in thousands, and all the berry fields in
the neighborhood were infested. They were also noticed on weeds of
different species and on peach trees. They fed on the leaves from the
upper side, eating off all the green part and leaving only the
skeleton.

A short note by Dr. James C. Neal, stating merely that this flea-
beetle had been the source of much trouble to strawberry growers in
various sections of the State of Florida (Bul. 9, Fla. Agr. Exp.
Stat., p. 11).

A note by Prof. Lawrence Bruner (Rept. of the Entomologist, Nebr.
State Horti. Soe. for 1890, p. 28) containing, however, no original
observations.

The following year, 1891, Prof. F. M. Webster (Bul. 33, Purdue
Univ. Agr. Expt. Sta. Ind., p. 44) wrote of injuries by this insect at
Columbus, Ind. What is practically a reprint of the last-mentioned
note appeared the following year (Trans. Ind. Horti. Soc. for 1890
[1891], p. 25). This was followed by an article by Mr. Webster on
the occurrence of this species at New Albany, in southern Indiana,
reciting injury to strawberries, and including mention of damage occur
ring as far north as Indianapolis. July and August were the months
noted as the ones in which the beetles were most destructive, they
seeming to disappear from the field about the Ist of September. A
note by Mr. E. A. Schwarz (Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., Vol, II, p. 183)
appeared next, giving a review of observed food piants of the beetle.
He remarked, among other things, that the imago appears to be more
polyphagous than any other species of its genus, and that Cnothera
biennis seemed to be the only true food plant ascertained for the larva
up to that time. Brief mention was made in Volume V of Insect Lite
(p. 17) of injury that has previously been mentioned, adding, however,
two new localities for the species—Lake City, Fla., and Waco, Tex.
Omitting mere mention of the occurrence of this species on Kalmia by
Dr. J. Hamilton, we come to an article published by Mr. A. L. Quaint-

76

ance in 1897 (Fla. Agr. Sta., Bul. 42, p. 592). No original observations
were made, which is true of a note published by Prof. C. P. Gillette in
Bulletin 47 of the State Agricultural College Experiment Station of
Colorado (p. 5).

In Dr. Otto Lugger’s fifth annual report as Entomologist to the
State Experiment Station of the University of Minnesota, published
in 1899, some attention is given this insect under the title of ‘‘The
lesser grapevine flea-beetle.” The insects were noticed by Mr. J. W.
Taylor, White Bear Lake, Minn., early in the spring of 1899, eating
into the buds of wild grape, afterwards attacking cultivated varieties,
and later the folhage of Virginia creeper. After destroying the buds
they continued upon the fully expanded leaves, which were riddled in
every conceivable manner to such an extent as to destroy them
entirely. Two generations were observed doing damage; the hiber-
nating beetles commencing the work, and the larve and beetles of a
subsequent generation finishing it. Eggs were found among the
woolly substance of the partly destroyed grape buds. It is said of the
species that it promises to become decidedly injurious, and therefore
wherever it is found should be fought with arsenites as soon as noticed.

UNPUBLISHED DIVISIONAL RECORDS.

The unrecorded notes on injuries by this species are, like the pub-
lished accounts previously noted, inconsiderable; but, such as they are,
they tend to show the periodicity of attack, 1890 being a year of
excessive abundance.

During 1890, specimens of the beetles were received from several
localities with reports of damage to strawberry and other garden
plants. April 4, from Mr. W. E. Hudson, Orlando, Fla., previously
mentioned, as recorded; April 29, from Mr. John Scott, Waco, Tex.,
with the statement that the species was doing much damage to garden
plants; September 1, from Mr. F. M. Webster, with the report that
the beetles were injuring the strawberries at Columbus, Ind., also
recorded. :

Mr. T. L. Mead, an entomologist and a competent observer, wrote,
May 4, 1897, that two or three years before that date a species of
Haltica, which, from his description, is without doubt this species,
‘‘did a good deal of damage to strawberry leaves, being almost numer-
ous enough to cover them.” Locality, Oviedo, Fla. A spray of
Paris green was used with apparently good results, as the next year
the beetles were scarce and had not appeared at the time of writing.
Mr. J. S. Lapham, Goldsboro, Md., writing of the occurrence of this
flea-beetle on strawberry the same year, stated that ‘* this insect feeds
on the leaves, making thousands of small holes in them, and while it
does not altogether destroy the crop of fruit, the berries are much
smaller when it works.”

Cr

HABITS OF THE LARVZ.

In our rearing jars the larve hatched from the egg fed almost ex-
clusively on the underside of the leaves. Not being satisfied that this
was the only manner of feeding of the larva, a visit was paid to the
locality where this species was found most abundantly the past season,
with the result of finding some plants containing numerous larve. It
was then ascertained that this larva lives very much as does the related
flaltica marevagans, which the writer has had under observation in
earlier years. It feeds upon both the upper and lower surfaces of the
leaf, appearing not to prefer either side. It also erodes large holes in

the growing seed pods, and even at times feeds in a similar manner

upon the stem. The larvee appear to favor the shade and are usually
found in the more secluded positions on the plant, particularly the
upper portions, occurring quite as often on the seed pods as on the
foliage. Inseveral instances larvee were found that had crawled into
leaves that had been rolied up by the grape leaf-folder, Desmia funer-
alis. The larve are quite sluggish and move from one leaf to another
only when necessity urges them, feeding as they go. In feeding they
gouge out around them large cavities, nearly as deep as their bodies.

When full fed the larvee enter the earth, and beneath and near the
-surface form little cells for pupation. Before this transformation
they become much lighter, yellow or orange-yellow, in color.

LIFE HISTORY OF THE SPECIES.

The beetles have been observed in the District of Columbia in May,
but probably make their appearance in the South at least in April, and
farther north may not appear till early June.

Eggs were deposited on the 23d by beetles obtained at River View,
Md., May 21, and by others taken August 12, at Marshall Hall, Md.,
on the following day and until at least the end of the month, since
egos have been obtained as late as August 28. -

The observed duration of the egg stage in August was six days.

Larve that hatched August 18 had begun to attain maturity August
29, or in eleven days, when they entered the earth for transformation.

The first imagos appeared September 6. We know even without
verification the full periods of development merely by the analogy of
this species and related ones. It had required two days for the beetle
to mature before leaving the pupal cell. This would bring the date of
assuming the imago state to September +. The pupa stage required
eight days, and eight days more were consumed by the larva in the earth
before transformation to pupa. The temperature to which the insects
were exposed during the major portion of this time was moderately
cool, about 74 to 84> F.

Indications are that there are two generations produced annually in
the District of Columbia, and there is probably a third in the South,
while farther north only a single generation may develop.

78
NATURAL ENEMIES.

No parasitic or predacious insects have, to the writer’s knowledge,

‘been found to attack this insect, but it seems probable that since the

larva lives freely exposed on its host plant that it is preyed upon by
species of predaceous and probably also parasitic insects.

On some of the plants of evening primrose upon which larve were
observed were numerous individuals of the spotted ladybird, Meg7lla
maculata, and there are the best of reasons for believing that this is
a natural enemy, although none of the ladybird beetles were actually
observed to attack the flea-beetle larve during the time that the latter
were under observation in the field.

REMEDIES.

In the treatment of the strawberry flea-beetle we have to follow
much the same methods as previously prescribed in the case of the
pale-striped flea-beetle. As with that insect, the best remedy is
undoubtedly one of the arsenicals, Paris green or arsenate of lead
being among the most useful, applied preferably in the form of a
spray upon the first appearance of the insects in the gardens. As Bor-
deaux mixture is known to be a repellent of considerable value against
flea-beetles, such arsenical as is used should be mixed with this fungi-
cide. It will then serve also to a certain extent a double purpose of
protecting the plants against fungous attack.

It is not desirable to use the poisonous sprays at the time of fruit-
ing of the crop, and at this time dusting the foliage with lime would
serve to drive the beetles away. i

In cases where the beetles have been injurious for two or more years
in succession, it would be advisable to apply the poisons to the wild larval
food plants, and afterwards to prevent these growing in abundance
where they would become an infesting source. It seems probable
that most instances of attack could be traced directly to the beetles
having bred in great numbers upon evening primrose or related plants
growing in the immediate vicinity.

THE FALL ARMY WORM IN 1899.
(Laphygma frugiperda 8. and A.)

Among the destructive insect pests of the season of 1899, and as
troublesome, perhaps, as any insect of that year, if we take into con-
sideration the large number of crops and the great area of territory
affected, was the fall army worm, or grass worm of the South
(Laphygma frugiperda, Smith and Abbot). The season was marked
by unprecedented outbreaks over a very considerable portion of the
United States east of the Rocky Mountain region, injury being reported

{
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a

also in Cuba. The territory infested during the year comprised por-
tions of New York and New Jersey in the North and East, and from
there southward to Florida, and westward to Texas, including among
Western States, Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

Although the species is a common one, and known to husbandmen
generally as distinct from the true army worm (Leucania unipuncta
Haw.), its life history has not as yet been studied in all its details in
any single locality, to the writer’s knowledge. It is hoped during the
coming season to settle certain points as to the insect’s life habits and
economy; and as the insect is one of great and growing importance, it
is proposed to bring together all the most salient facts concerning it,
in the form of a bulletin, when the missing data have been supplied.
In the present paper a brief account of injurious occurrences of the
season of 1899 will be furnished, together with a mere outline of other
matters pertaining to the insect, pending a more complete account.

The fall army worm is essentially a grass feeder, attacking grasses of
all sorts, as well as the most succulent grains, but when these foods are
exhausted, as happened during the past year, the caterpillars, driven
by hunger, avail themselves of almost anything green, and at such
times become pests in gardens, orchards, and greenhouses, as well as
in the field. Although, properly speaking, a field-crop insect, this
species does such considerable damage in- the yegetable gardens, and
to so great a variety of truck crops, that it is for purposes of conven-
ience considered in the present bulletin.

The list of localities where outbreaks were noticed duing the year,
although large, does not by any means afford ground as to a full
estimate of the ravages of this pest. Many correspondents reported
the ‘*army worm” in their vicinity where it was impossible to obtain
specimens of the insect. As only four reports reached us during the
season of injury by the true army worm, there is every reason to
believe that the fall army worm was the insect present in nearly every
ease. Reports of injury by this insect usually attract attention late in
the season, and for this reason only a single publication on this subject,
emanating from the University of Nebraska, appeared during the year.

INJURIOUS OCCURRENCES OF THE SEASON OF 1899.

The first instance of reported injury was received from a corres-
pondent who wrote June 19 of damage to the rice crop in the neigh-
borhood of Wilmington, N. C. In this case, as in others which will
be reported, specimens accompanied the communication.

During July we received a report of an outbreak at Cherry, N. C.,
and of much damage to corn, rice, peas, grasses, and young corn.
During the latter days of that month the writer’s attention was called
by Dr. P. B. Kennedy, of the Division of Agrostology, to injury to an
experimental plat of creeping bent-grass, Agrostis stolonifera, on the

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80

Department grounds, in which this insect was concerned, and was evi-
dently the chief factor concerned in the subsequent death of the grass.

During August we received through different correspondents reports
of injury at Arcola, Ill., to leaves of corn; at Red Springs, N. C., to
corn, millet, cowpeas, sweet potato and other vegetables; at Chicago
and Evanston, Ill., of much trouble caused by the great numbers of
these insects to lawns in both cities, this outbreak forming the text of
numerous newspaper accounts and much correspondence with this
Division; attack was most noticeable, from what could be learned, on
young blue grass, although the ‘‘ worms” were observed also on white
clover; at New Glatz, Md., to forage or sowed corn and spinach; at
Rives, Md., to millet; at Evansville, Ind., to corn; at Richmond, Va.,
to corn and millet near that city; at Statesburg, S. C., to grass, hay,
and garden eee at, Morgantown, W. Va., to lawns; at Clarcona,
Fla., to ‘*teosinte,” Huchena mexicana, a ae plant resembling
maize; and at Congaree, 8. C., to upland rice.

In October we meceined me pa from Athens, Ga., of injury to the
leaves of turnips, in which this insect was one of the species present.
At Matanzas, Cuba, it was reported as being concerned in a severe
attack upon pasture grasses, as well as on young tobacco. It was
reported the same month as doing injury to lawns at Buffalo, N. Y.,
while at McPherson, Kans., it was stated to be destructive to wheat.
Certain reports reached this office after the close of the year, and
among these one from Mr. F. M. Webster of injury during the
season at Haverhill, Buckrun, and Urbana, Ohio, and one from Prof.
J. B. Smith of injuries in New Jersey, clover, grass, and wheat
having been the crops attacked.

A more complete lst of localities could have been furnished at
this time but for the fact that the ravages of the insect were either at
their height or had not been noticed at the time of the meeting of the
Association of Economic Entomologists in August. Doubtless during
the coming year different members of that Association in various parts
of the country will write concerning the outbreaks in their respective
States.

In The Indiana Farmer of September 22, 1899, this insect was reported
as having made its appearance at New Lafayette, Ind., and in the
vicinity of Indianapolis, corn, millet, buckwheat, and garden vege-
tables being the crops attacked.

In the publication of the University of Nebraska, previously men-

tioned (Press Bulletin, series No. 2), Prof. W. D. Hinton its author,
reported injury to be very severe in that State, particularly to alfalfa,
the species having been identified from Johnson, Gage, Nemaha, Saline,
Fillmore, Douglas, Washington, and Dodge counties. The presence
of the species was also reported from Boyd and Dawson counties.

hae at

81

Other crops affected were beets, corn, Kafir corn, wheat, oats, cabbage,
and grasses.
DESCRIPTIVE.

For the benefit of those readers of this bulletin who may not have
access to descriptions and illustrations of the insect, brief descriptions
will be furnished to serve as a means of identification in connection
with figure 19. _

The parent of the fall army worm is a moth and a member of the

family Noctuide to which belongs the true army worm and the cut-

worms. The army-worm moth is quite unlike that of the common
army worm and very variable, there usually being in most localities
two distinct forms, a dull gray and an ornamented form. The former
is shown in the illustration at a. The fore-wings are dull grayish-
brown above and show in this color
variety a pattern more or less like
the one figured. The hind-wings
are glistening white with rosy reflec-
tions. Inthe more ornamental form,
the insect resembles one of the
owlet moths, particularly Prodenia
ornithogalli. The fore-wing of this
variety is figured at 6. The fore-
wings are mottled with black and
white, reddish brown, and some-
times with pale bluish, yellowish,
and other tints. The wing expanse

is from an inch to an inch and

Fig. ee ee mn er dan. gh moth, plain three-eighths.
gray form; b, fore-wing of Prodenia-like : tas
form; ¢, larya extended; d, abdominal seg- The eggs are about half a milli-

muCDE Os anyone etal views ¢ypupa, lateral Tneter, of about one thirty-second
view—d, twice natural size; others enlarged -
one-fourth (original). of an inch in diameter, and are de-
| posited in clusters of from fifty to
sixty and more, often in two or three layers. The whole egg mass ts
covered with gray-colored down from the body of the parent moth.
The larva when first hatched is quite unlike the full-grown cater-
pillar, the head being proportionately larger and the body more hairy.
It is nearly black at this stage. The same variability observed in the
mature insect holds good of the coloring of the caterpillars. When
mature they measure about an inch and a half, and while resembling
the common army worm in certain particulars may readily be distin-
guished from that species. A full-grown caterpillar is shown in the
illustration at c. The notable points of difference between this larva
and the common army worm are in the larger and more prominent
piliferous tubercles and the longer hairs of the former and in the
17591— No. 28 6

82

smaller and slenderer body. The head is proportionately smaller,

nearly black, and with a white inverted Y-shaped mark in front not—

possessed by the army worm.

The body is striped on a ground color which varies above from pale
yellowish brown, to black, more or less strongly streaked and inter-
mixed with dull yellow. Three thin stripes of pale yellow extend
along the dorsal surface through the thoracic shield to the anal extrem-
ity.. The dorsal or middle line 1s nearly straight, and the subdorsal

ones are feebly sinuate. On each side there is a broad yellow undulat-

ing line, more or less strongly mottled with red, particularly in the
vicinity of the abdominal legs. The ventral or lower surface is paler,
varying from dull yellow to greenish, sometimes very strongly mixed
with red.

The pupa resembles that of the army worm, but is of smaller size,
and the spiracles and a considerable proportion of the surrounding tis-
sues are larger and more prominent in the former. The length in this

_stage is about five-eighths of an inch.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE SPECIES.

The distribution given by Dr. Smith in 1893 (Bul. 44, U. S. Nat.
Mus., p. 169) is from **Canada, south to Florida and Texas, west to
Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Jamaica, Brazil.” The insect has also
been reported to us from Coiorado and Montana, and specimens were
received during the year from Cuba.

The species is native American and probably indigenous to the
United States, but has, evidently, spread from the Gulf States north-
ward in rather recent years. At present it occupies the Tropical,
Lower Austral, and Upper Austral life zones, and has been reported
to occur in the Transition faunal area, and appears to be traveling
slowly still farther northward.

HISTORY AND HABITS.

The fall army worm was first described in 1797, in Smith and A bbot’s
Natural History of the Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia, or one hun-
dred and two years before the present general cutbreak. Since that
time ravages have been noticed at various periods and in. different
localities, in 1845, 1855, 1868, 1870, 1872, 1873, 1881, and 1883, these
irruptions being noted in only one or two States in a single year.

The first outbreak of any extent occurred in 1884, followed by a
smaller outbreak in the ensuing year. Later reports of injury were
received in 1892, 1896, and 1897.

The list of plants which serve as food for the fall army worm during
its pericds of abundance include, besides grasses and grains of all sorts,
sugar cane, buckwheat, alfalfa, clover, cowpeas. sugar beets, cotton,
tobacco, sweet potatoes, spinach, turnips, tomatoes, cucumbers, cab-

nr ee NE

eee er

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83

bage, beans, and strawberry. Under exceptional circumstances vine-
yards are attacked and the foliage of fruit trees devoured, and instances
are on record of invasions of greenhouses and of attack to stacks of
fodder. The cannibalistic habit of the larvee is well known, in which
respect this insect resembles the boll worm.

The life history, as previously intimated, has not yet been carefully
studied, the stage in which hibernation takes place being still in doubt.
It was ascertained that hibernation does not take place in the egg
condition, at least in the latitude of the District of Columbia, and it
seems propable from all available data that this insect resembles the
cotton worm (Aletia xylina Say), at least in its habit of hibernation.
From specimens received during the past season from Georgia, adults
were obtained during a warm spell in November, and it is the consen-
sus of opinion of those who have given the subject of the biology of
this insect any study that it probably passes the winter either as adult
or as pupa, and from present knowledge evidently in the adult con-
dition chiefly, although it is possible that larvee may winter over.

The number of generations produced each year has been stated to
be at least two in the northern limits of the species, and three for the
south; but, from experience with related insects, the writer is inclined
to accord this insect at least three generations for a climate like that
of the District of Columbia, and four or more for the Gulf States. It
is hoped that another year may see these points, as well as others, in
the insect’s life history made clear; as, for example, the time of the
earliest appearance of the moth in different localities, the time of
first egg-laying, and the period of all of the different stages, and the
stage and place of hibernation.

The larve live like other cutworms in years of ordinary abundance,
and are so dark and evidently secretive in their nature as to usually
escape recognition. When, however, in seasons like the past, an undue
increase in the numbers of the insect takes place and the habit of moy-
ing in armies is assumed, their presence becomes manifest, too late,
however, in most instances, for remedial treatment.

Transformation to pupa takes place in little earthen cells, which may
be either erect or somewhat. inclined, but occasionally pupz are not so
protected.

A feature of the fall army worm’s attack, and the one from which it
has received its name, is that it is seldom observed to travel in num-
bers, save perhaps in the extreme South, until the fall, at least not
earlier than the first of August, while the outbreaks of the common
army worm occur usually prior to that time and seldom later.

NATURAL ENEMIES.

The fall army worm, on account of its somewhat smaller size, less
conspicuous appearance and more concealed manner of living, and from

s4

the fact that it is not usually found in such large armies, does not attract
the same number of parasitic and predaceous enemies that have been
recorded for the common army worm. During the past season the
only natural enemies of the fall army worm observed were the English
sparrow and some other birds, especially flickers, and a Tachinid fly,
Winthemia quadripunctulata Wied., which deposits its eggs usually on
or near the thoracic segments of its victim. A few other natural
enemies have been observed in other years. which include ants. wasps,
Ichneumon flies, and Chalcidids.

It is well known that two outbreaks of the true army worm have
never yet come under observation in successive years, and it is to the
efficiency of natural enemies that such a condition is ascribed. From
the experience of the past year there is no reason to expect immunity
from attack the coming year, as scarcely any dependence can be placed
upon parasitic and predaceous insects and other animals with this spe-
cies, and we know moreover that outbreaks may occur in successive
years, as happened in Florida in 1896 and 1897, and in two other cases
which have been recorded.

REMEDIAL MEASURES.

The fall army worm resembles so nearly the common army worm in
seasons when it assumes the habit of traveling ir armies that it is at
such times amenable to much the same line of remedial treatment.
The remedies of the greatest value against the latter are described in
the Annual Report of this Department for 1879 (pp. 189, 190), and
in Circular No. 4, second series, of this Division (pp. 3, 4).

Unfortunately. as with the common army worm. infestation is not
reported, in fact is seldom detected, until too late for the application
of direct remedies. When attack is at its height the larve or ** worms”
are usually approaching maturity, and it is difficult to check them at
this stage or prevent them from passing from one field or garden to
another. Paris green and other arsenicals are of value where they
would not involve further injury to the crop infested or destroy it as
food for man or beast. |

Lawns can be freed from the caterpillars, at least in great measure,
by the use of kerosene emulsion followed with as complete a drench-
ing as possible with water from a hose.

lf the earlier generations of the caterpillars could be discovered they
could be destroyed in the same manner as other cutworms by the use
of poisoned baits, this remedy being particularly applicable in vege-
table gardens. Such baits should be made of succulent grasses or
alfalfa, where the latter can be obtained, and saturated by immersion
in a solution of Paris green or other arsenical.

By copiously spraying a wide strip of grass land surrounding unin

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fested areas with Paris green, the insect could be prevented from
spreading to them.

Rotation of crops should always be practiced, as well as the burning
over of fields in the fall when the crops have become too badly injured
for recovery. Itis even advisable to burn over crops and to plow
up fields just as soon as permanent loss is assured, and thus prevent
infestation of neighboring crops.

Above all other precautions it is necessary to keep fields free from
volunteer grain and wild grasses that would attract the moths for the
deposition of their eggs, and thus serve as a breeding ground for the
insects. A potent source of injury is the planting of one cereal after
another with grasses, and the planting of crops in ground which has
been permitted to run waste to wild grasses and weeds.

Before planting to grass and-cereals the soil, particularly in the fall,
should be thoroughly broken up by plowing and harrowing. Fall
plowing is always to be practiced where suitable to the crop, the soil,
and other conditions, and it is also well to follow with a harrow and
level the ground where possible. For alfalfa, Professor Hunter rec-
ommends ** disking,” and for lawns a thorough going over with a long-
toothed steel rake. Such methods of treatment serve to break up the
cells in which the chrysalides are resting, as well as to destroy the
larva when present in its several stages.

From the observations of Dr. Howard on the occurrence of this
insect in 1881, it would seem obvious that where rice fields can be
flooded many of these insects will be destroyed, and in localities where
flooding is practicable there need be little fear of injuries. In many
cases it is possible to overflow the fields at will, and, where necessary,
negro laborers can be sent through fields to brush the ‘‘ worms” from
the stalks and leaf blades into the water.

During the outbreak of 1884 in Kansas it was learned that the ray-
ages of this insect could be prevented by postponing the planting of
wheat and rye until between September 20 and October 20.

THE STRAWBERRY CROWN MOTH.

(Sesia rutilans Hy. Edw.)

A destructive enemy to small fruits in the Pacific States and one
particularly injurious to strawberry, blackberry, and raspberry in Cal-
ifornia is a borer larva of the Sesiid moth, Sesza rutilans Hy. Edw.
Although the species has not often come to the notice of this office
through correspondence, it has received some little attention at the
hands of western entomologists and has already a considerable litera-
ture. Of recent reports of injury we have only one, that communi-
cated by Mr. A. F. Bowen, Mountain View, Cal., February 26, 1900,
when specimens were sent of crowns of strawberry that showed injury

-oO"

by the larva, which was also present and included in this sending. Our
correspondent wrote that while examining the plants last autumn he
found that in disturbing the vines a clear-winged moth (the parent of
this borer) often flew out.

As this insect does not appear to have received notice, even casually,
in any of our official governmental publications, the present paper has
been prepared.

INJURY AT SANTA CLARA, CAL.

Among the insects collected several years ago by Mr. A. Koebele
while acting as special field agent of this Division in California this
species was prominent.

April 22, 1887, Mr. Koebele found numerous specimens of this spe-
cies, at that time in larva and chrysalis form, in the roots of strawberry
at Santa Clara, Cal. In the field examined about one-half of all the
plants were infested. Injury became manifest only after the old main
root was destroyed. All the chrysalides observed were in cocoons
formed of bits of roots within the roots and near an opening. The
mature moths began issuing April 30, and continued until July 2,
being most numerous toward the end of May. 7

May 26 of the following year Mr. Koebele made a careful exami-
nation of the same field in which the insects had been observed
previously and noticed a general improvement. In places where plants
had been killed, many new ones had come up and larve and pup
were exceedingly rare. This was believed to be due to the free use of
water during the preceding spring, which resulted in the destruction
of the larvee, many dead and moldy specimens of which were found,
as well as some which were parasitized. From material gathered at
this time adults were again reared, the last individuals issuing July
24. Among this lot was an unusual variation, which Mr. Koebele
described as being entirely black. July 14 of the same year this species
was reared from raspberry. The larva was found boring in the roots
up into the dead stump, pupating about one inch above ground.

BIOLOGIC LITERATURE.

The first record that I find of the habits of this species is that, pub-
lished by Mr. J. J. Rivers, in Volume III of Papilio (p. 26), in January,
1883. This isa short note from correspondence, and is headed Agerza
hemizonie Hy. Edw. It is quoted in full:

I have reared this species from the larva, a pallid grub with a darker head, feeding
in the roots, rhizome, or base of the canes of the cultivated raspberry, and devour-
ing the pith therein. This is looked upon by fruit growersasa direful insect, killing
the plant, root and branch, but the injury is not so great as supposed. The larva
feeds only on the pith, the loss of which is not immediately fatal, even to the part
affected, much less to the whole. I have observed these A¢gerian larvee always in

et

ee

a al a a

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87

otherwise unhealthy plants, such as are infested with ‘‘scale,’’ and mostly with the
tumors of the ‘‘ woolly aphis’’ upon their roots. This last condition is usually
accompanied by bad cultivation.

In the Pacific Rural Press of June 25, 1887 (vol. 33, p. 559), a letter
by Dr. Riley addressed to Mr. I. A. Wilcox, Santa Clara, Cal., is pub-
lished. The species is here mentioned as 4Zgeria impropria Hy. Edw., «
by which name it also received mention in most subsequent publica-
tions bearing upon the biology of this insect.

At a meeting of the Entomological Society of Washington, held
June 2, 1887 (see Proceedings, Vol. I, p. 85, published March 1, 1888),
specimens of the several stages of this species were exhibited by Dr.
Riley with the statement that it was injurious in the larval stage to
strawberries in southern California. He stated that he had for several
years known that great injury to the roots of strawberry was occasioned
by some lepidopterous borer, but the species had remained undeter-
mined until about that time.

In 1888 Mr. W. G. Klee, State inspector of fruit pests, gave a popu-
lar account of this species in the Third Biennial Report of the State
Board of Horticulture of California for that year (pp. 248, 244). This
includes an illustration of the three stages of the insect anda state-
ment that the common practice of flooding the vines has a great tend-
ency to kill out the insect when in the larval stage, the opinion being
expressed that if the water were retained for four or five days during
the winter over the plants all larvee would probably be killed.

In August of the same year Mr. Rivers published a second note on
this insect with an account of its occurrence in the roots of cultivated
blackberry. It was found equally at home in this plant, and caused
the foliage and fruit to be dwarfed, dried, and valueless. (Entom.
pemers VOl-aEV ..1).-99; )

Recently Messrs. C. V. Piper and R. W. Doane gave a popular
economic account of this species in Bulletin.35 of the Washington
State Agricultural Experiment Station, dated May, 1898 (pp. 13-17),
and during 1899 a short general account by Dr. Otto Lugger was
published in that writer’s Fourth Annual Report as Entomologist of
Minnesota, page 64.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIES.

According to recent studies of Mr. Beutenmiiller on the Sesiide of
North America, the insect in question must be referred to the species
described by Henry Edwards in November, 1881, in Papilio (Vol. I,
pp. 186, 187), under the name of Albuna rutilans. The type was a
single female captured at Virginia City, Nev. ,

The adult, like other species of the Sesiide or clear-winged moths,
is noticeable on account of the transparency of the wings, particularly
of the hinder pair, the slender body, and the tuft of the apex of the

abdomen, which, in life, is spread out like a fan. The moths are

88

diurnal in habit, flying swiftly in the heat of the day, when they might
easily be mistaken for wasps, an effect due to their slender form,
transparent hind-wings, and bright metallic colors.

The female moth is shown in the figure at v. It has a wing expanse
of about seven-eightus of an inch (18 to 22 mm.). The ground color
of the body and head is black with yellow stripes and bands. The
antennee are bluish black, and the legs are yellow ringed with black.
The fore-wings are broadly bordered with brown and black, with a
purple iridescence. Between the veins are thin stripes of yellow.
The outer border of both wings is fringed with brown, that portion
of the hind-wings nearest the base being fringed with yellow. The
abdomen is tufted at the tip with yellow and black.

The male (0) is similar, but smaller and more slender, the anal tuft
being longer and wider and blue-black in color.

A full description with bibliography and notes is given by Beuten-
miller (Bul. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. VIII, pp. 130, 131, 1896).

The remarkable variability of this species is illustrated by tne
number of names that have been given to it by its original describer.
According to Beutenmiiller, the synonyms are geria aureola, hemi-
zonie, lupind, perplexa, impropria, washingtonia and madarie g, all
described in volume I of Papilio.

The present known habitat includes Marin and Mendocino counties,
and Sierra Nevada, Santa Clara, and Sausalito, Cal.; Virginia City and
elsewhere in Nevada, Washington, Colorado, and Texas. The species
is obviously native, and as the last-mentioned locality is based on a
single male collected many years ago, either there is some reasonable
doubt as to the authenticity of the capture or the species has a rather
unusual range for an indigenous insect.

YARLIER STAGES DESCRIBED.

In the accompanying illustration the immature stages were drawn
at the time of the receipt of the specimens; the adults were finished
more recently.

The larva.—The larva, shown in the illustration at ¢ at work within
a strawberry stem, is of the usual cylindrical form and white color of
the #Mgerians and of nearly uniform diameter from the first thoracic
to the last two abdominal segments, where the body tapers strongly.
The second thoracic segment is just perceptibly widest, a little wider
than the middle abdominal, and the last joint is quite narrow. The
head is reddish brown and partially concealed beneath the first tho-
racic segment. The mandibles are black and the legs brownish with
small dark-brown or black claws. The body has a few small brownish
hairs scattered over each segment. Ina general way this larva very
closely resembles congeneric species, such as pyr? and acerni, being
of about the same size as the former. The length is about ;°> of an

—_

89

inch (15"") when contracted, and ;8 of an inch (20™") when fully
extended, the width being a little less than an eighth of an inch (3™”).

The pupa, or chrysalis (see @), is formed in a cocoon which the larva
spins about itself early in June—in Washington State, constructed
principally of brownish castings woven together by means of fine
silken strands. The chrysalis itself is reddish brown in color, about
one-half inch long and with several rows of blackish spines cross-
ing the back, the last row being larger and extending further around
on the sides. The wings, antennze, and long sucking tube may be seen
folded underneath the body. |

The cocoon is constructed within the burrow of the larva, and usu-
ally made near the center of the crown of the plant; but just before
the emergence of the moth,
the pupa, like others of its
kind, and with the assistance
of the sharp spines on its
back, wriggles its way par-
tially out of the cocoon, and
after the escape of the moth
the empty pupa skin is left
projecting from the former
home of the larva, as shown
in the illustration at e.

METHODS OF CONTROL.

Submersion.—From the
observations of Messrs. Koe- -
bele and Klee, it is evident
that the submerging of af-
feeted fields, where this can Fig. 20.—Sesia rutilans: a, female moth; b, male; ¢, larva
be accomplished, 1S sufficient, at work in strawberry stem; d, pupa; e, pupal cell in
when properly done, for the e™ showing empty pupal eas: aftr ceape of moth
suppression of the pest. This _ size (original.)
means of control is particu-
larly applicable in localities where irrigation is practiced, the best time
for submersion being, theoretically at least, as soon as possible after
the fruit has been gathered.

It would be interesting to learn how common this practice is, and just
how practicable it may be in the regions most affected by the insect.

Insecticides valueless.—Where submersion cannot be practiced, it
would appear that remedial measures will be very difficult of applica-
tion. In fact, we are confronted by much the same difficulties that
present themselves in our efforts to control the nearly related squash-
vine borer. The concealed mode of life of the larva renders the use
of insecticides practically out of the question, the only one that would

90 | |

give any good results being bisulphide of carbon, and it is doubtful
if this could be apphed profitably.’ The pupa is equally difficult to
reach.

Protection with netting.—Choiee plants, it is true, could be protected
by means of close-mesh netting, which should be applied just before
the appearance of the moths in July and retained in place until after
the period of ovulation.

Cutting out infested and weak plants.—¥or the most efficient means
of control in the absence of the practicability of submersion, we must
have recourse to the heroic treatment which has already been recom-
mended by Piper and Doane, and which consists in watching the plants
closely for evidences of injury in the early spring, and then digging
out and destroying by burning all infested or weakened plants that
might serve as a breeding place for the species. After the plants
have served their usefulness, they should be plowed under. It would
be well to look carefully over all wild or.volunteer growth of all of
the known food plants of this species, and to pursue the same methods
with these, destroying all useless plants. ;

THE BLACK GOOSEBERRY BORER. .
(Xylocrius agassizii Lec.)

December 27, 1898, Dr. James Fletcher, entomologist and botanist
of the Dominion of Canada, wrote that a Longicorn beetle, Xylocrius

Fig. es alaeriis agassizii: a, beetle; b, larva, lateral view; c, same, dorsal view; d, larval antenna:
€, pupa —a, lt, ¢, e, three times natural size; d, more enlarged (author’s illustration.)
agassizii Lee., had recently been reared from a larva imported from
Oregon into British Columbia, and found boring the stems of goose-
berry. Injury by the species was detected by some of the stems break-
ing when being handled. All of the consignees of this particular stock
were visited, and Dr. Fletcher believes that the bushes were inspected

betore the beetles could have emerged.
From specimens furnished by Mr. E. A. Carew-Gibson, Victoria,
British Columbia, the accompanying figure 21 was made by this Diyi-

Fic. 22.—Gooseberry stem infested by Xylocrius
agassizii—reduced one-third (from photo-
graph by E. A. Carew-Gibson).

a

Fic. 23.—Gooseberry stem showing larva of
Xylocrius agassizii—slightly enlarged (photo-
graph by Carew-Gibson).

92

sion and loaned to Dr. Fletcher for use in an article upon this species
which appeared in his entomological report for the year 1898 (1899,
pp. 207-210). The other illustrations are from photographs by Mr.
Carew-Gibson.

This species, represented in the adult form at a of figure 21, resem-
bles rather closely Callidium, as also Asemum, being related to both
genera. It is deep, dull black in color, rather sparsely pubescent,
and of inconspicuous appearance, measuring about half an inch in
length. No description of the larve or pupe has yet been made, but
their general appearance can be made out from the accompanying
illustration.

One of the remarkable features about this attack is that previously

the species was, and in fact still is, a rarity in collections. Injury was:

also noticed at Victoria by R. M. Palmer, and the infested bushes were
traced to a nursery company at Salem, Oregon. Several hundred trees
were condemned and destroyed, and it is hoped that the species has
been effectually checked, if not exterminated, in the infested region.

Little is known of the life history of this gooseberry borer. Mr.
Carew-Gibson, however, made some observations. A larva which he
had under notice transformed to pupa August 19, and appeared as
imago eighteen days later. A beetle was also found ready to emerge
from a twig September 13. Only a single larva is to be found in each
affected bush. The larva is described as generally starting in from a
convenient crotch somewhere about where the branch makes a fork
(and where the eggs are perhaps laid by preference); then working
downward and apparently wintering in the roots. In one case noticed
the larva had worked so near to the earth that there must have been
only the thinnest possible covering between it and the soil; it then
appeared to bore upwards, after the manner of the raspberry cane-
borer, and after reaching some inches above ground made a chamber
with a very thin covering dividing it from the air; in this the insect
pupated. From two reared beetles an egg was obtained on the 15th
of September.

METHODS OF CONTROL.

Until we know more concerning the life history and habits of this
gooseberry borer, no other remedy can be advised than the cutting
out and destruction by burning of the injured plants as soon as they
are detected. If future observations should show that the same insect
attacks also currants, which seems probable, it will be necessary for
the protection of one plant to adopt the same measures with the other.

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