1892.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 2OJ 



As an example of a slowly spreading insect, Crioceris iz-punctatiis L. 

 may be cited. It has been known from the vicinity of Baltimore for many 

 years, but has been found for the first time in New Jersey during the 

 present season. Curiously enough, I found it on volunteer asparagus 

 only, though cultivated beds were just across the fence. It has never 

 been as troublesome as its congener, C. asparagi, and is fully as pretty a 

 beetle. This C. asparagi, by-the-bye, is fairly well controlled now-a-days 

 by growers in New Jersey; they either cut all the shoots in the bed, forcing 

 the beetles to oviposit on the heads which are sent to market, or the poorer 

 shoots are allowed to grow until they become covered with eggs. They 

 are then cut and destroyed, and in this easy manner the first brood of 

 larva is reduced to a minimum. If farmers could be induced to destroy 

 the volunteer asparagus growing along the road and in fence corners, the 

 practice would be still more effective, but as it is, hundreds of eggs are 

 allowed to develop in these neglected places and the new beetles find 

 their way to the cultivated plants after the cutting season is over. 



Farm practice to prevent insect injury is bound to become a subject of 

 great importance in the near future. Poisons and insecticides generally, 

 will always have a large field of usefulness, but we can often control in- 

 sects easily and cheaply by taking advantage of some peculiarity of habit. 

 I have called attention to some of the possibilities of this method in 

 Bulletin No. 85 of the New Jersey Station, and further observations bring 

 new applications of the principle. In Bulletin No. 21 of the Mississippi 

 Experiment Station, Mr. H. E. Weed gives an account of the insects in- 

 jurious to cabbage. All of the species treated are well known, and have 

 been frequently written up, but the new and valuable facts are in the ac- 

 count of the "Harlequin Cabbage Bug," Murgantia histrionica. Mr. 

 Weed has found that the hibernating bugs are especially fond of radish 

 .and mustard plants, and that they feed and oviposit on these in preference 

 to the cabbage. By planting trap rows of mustard or radish in the cab- 

 bage fields the bugs are induced to congregate on them, and there they 

 can be easily collected and destroyed, or kerosene can be used as a spray, 

 thus destroying the insects. Kerosene when diluted so as to be safe for 

 use on. cabbage, is ineffective as against the adult bugs and their destruc- 

 tion on cabbage is thus out of question. The mustard or radish would be 

 planted merely to be sacrificed in destroying the insects. In New Jersey 

 the wild Cruciferae are an important element in the life of our most serious 

 cabbage pest Pieris rapce. It is upon these that the few spring butter- 

 flies lay their eggs, and upon these the larvae develop before the cabbages 

 are in condition to afford food for them. A conscientious early destruction 

 of cruciferous weeds, would very materially lessen injury from " cabbage 

 worms" later in the season. 



Dr. E. W. Doran has a Bulletin on "Wheat Insects," No. 16 of the 

 Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station. The insects treated are those 

 that affect the stored grain, and the most important of them is the " An- 

 gumois Grain Moth." Geleclria ccrcallcla Oliv. Dr. Doran made a num- 



