BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY. 531 



of a lartje moth attacking the gramma grass on cattle ranges was re- 

 ferred to in the hist report. An expert assistant devoted a hirge por- 

 tion of the fiscal year to an investigation of this outbreak, and the 

 results have been published in Part V of Bulletin 85 of the Bureau. 

 The insect has spread from a limited area in northeastern New Mexico 

 into the Panhandle region of Texas and the Cherokee strip of Okla- 

 homa, as well as into adjacent portions of Kansas and Colorado. 

 Owing to the immense tej-ritory covered by the insect, and to the to- 

 pography of the country, some of which is almost inaccessible, appli- 

 cations usually employed for destroying insects are impracticable. 

 Only a very small percentage of the caterpillars are parasitized, and 

 yet, from the present outlook, the introduction of parasitic enemies 

 seems the only remedy. 



THE ALFALFA WEEVIL. 



The alfalfa weevil, beginning in the region about Salt Lake City, is 

 apparently an introduced European insect. It was first observed in 

 the vicinity of Salt Lake, not far from nurseries importing more 

 or less- stock from southern Europe, thus indicating a possibility of 

 its introduction in the packing of stock. At the end of the fiscal 

 year 1910 it was making rapid headway toward the alfalfa fields of 

 Colorado, Wyoming, and Idaho. It constitutes a great menace to 

 alfalfa culture. Studies of the life history of the weevil have been 

 carried on in cooperation witli the Utah agricultural experiment 

 station, and experimental work has been done with remedies. The 

 peculiar life history of the insect, however, which lays its eggs 

 during a period of six weeks in the spring, near the base of the plant, 

 renders operations against the larvee extremely onerous on account 

 of the necessity of frequent repetition. An experiment was made in 

 the introduction of a fungous disease which kills an allied weevil in 

 the Atlantic States, but without success. Possibly in irrigated regions 

 with the proper moisture conditions this disease may be made to 

 take hold. 



THE SORGHUM MIDGE. 



The sorghum midge, which prevents the sorghum raisers in the far 

 South from securing seed, has been thoroughly investigated, and the 

 results have been published. It now seems as though a large part of 

 the difficulty experienced will be eliminated by the destruction of 

 trash left in the field and of the Johnson grass escaped from culti- 

 vation and growing along roadsides and other Avaste places. 



OTHER INVESTIGATIONS. 



The other investigations of this branch of the Bureau work have 

 included a study of the wheat strawworm in Kansas and the extreme 

 Northwest, the corn root-aphis, the cowpea curculin, (lie slender sved- 

 corn ground-beetle, a butterfly larva dauiaging alfalfa in California, 

 Arizona, and Nevada, a gall fly attacking the seed pods of alfalfa in 

 Arizona, the southern corn leaf-beetle, the southern corn root-worm, 

 wirewornis, and a number of other species. An important investiga- 

 tion has also been carried out regarding the exact relations of leaf- 

 hoppers to the cultivation of grains and grasses. It Avas shown some 



