REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



Bureau of Entomology, 

 Wa^Jiington, D. 6*., August llf^ 1919. 



Sir : I submit hercAvith a report of the Avork of the Bureau of En- 

 ton iology for the fiscal 3'ear ending June 30, 1919, following your 

 directions as to arrangement. 



L. O. Howard, 

 Entomologist and Chief of Bureau. 

 Hon. D. F. Houston, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 



CEREAL AND FORAGE CROP INSECT INVESTIGATIONS. 



The work of this section, continued under the charge of i\Ir. W. Tv. 

 Walton, has been of especial importance during the past fiscal year. 



European corn borer. — In the last annual report of the bureau 

 it was pointed out that this recently discovered insect, accidentally 

 imported from Europe and tlioroughly established in a limited re- 

 gion in eastern Massachusetts, threatened to become a pest of great 

 importance throughout the corn-growing regions of the United 

 States unless immediate measures were taken to stop its spread. 

 Shortly after its discovery in 1917, it was shown to occupy appar- 

 ently an area of about 100 square miles in the immediate vicinity of 

 Boston. Later it was found in the jNIohawk Valley of eastern New 

 York, and careful scouting work showed that by the autumn of 1918 

 it had spread over an area of some 400 square miles. Scouting Avork 

 in Massachusetts during the autumn of 1918 and the early spring of 

 1919 showed a distribution througliout 500 square miles of territory. 

 A very vigorous campaign, looking toward extermination, was begun 

 under State agricultural organizations; the New York Legislature 

 appropriated $100,000, the most of this sum being spent in the spring 

 of 1919, and it is believed that much good was accomplished. A 

 cooperative campaign was started in Massachusetts by Federal and 

 State authorities under a State appropriation of $50,000, and a con- 

 siderable part of the infested area was treated in the effort to pre- 

 vent the natural spread of the insect. A Federal appropriation was 

 asked for, but the bill failed to pass Congress, and all of the work 

 done in the spring of 1919 was carried on with funds provided by 

 the States of New York and Massachusetts. The vulnerable point 

 in the insect's life history is in its hibernation as a caterpillar in the 

 stalks of corn and in the stems of other plants which it attacks, and 

 there is a large list of these. Therefore the most effective Avork can 

 be done only when the insect is in hibernation; and by the failure of 



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