ZOOLOGY 



Early in the college year 1917-18, the writer was transferred 

 from the College of Arts and Sciences to the College of Agriculture 

 and the Experiment Station, as Zoologist, this line of work having 

 been previously represented in the Station only by Entomology 

 under the Consulting Entomologist. 



The first work taken up was an investigation of cutworms in 

 Arizona, and the preparation of a bulletin to be referred to later. 

 Shortly after taking up the cutworm work, attention was directed 

 to the range problems of the State, particularly with reference to 

 the injurious efifects of rodents on the native grass lands. This 

 problem soon loomed so large as to make it desirable to drop the 

 cutworm work, and take up an. intensive study of certain range 

 rodents, which was done. Cooperation with the Forest Service, 

 the Biological Survey, and the Carnegie Institution has led to the 

 development of important range studies which are being conducted 

 on the Santa Rita Range Reserve, 40 miles south of Tucson. The 

 I'orest Service, under the direct recommendation of the Biological 

 Survey, has furnished funds (about $800) for the construction of 

 special fences for experimental plots, the first fences of their kind 

 ever built. The Forest Service has also cooperated in furnishing 

 the conveniences of a headquarters camp on the edge of the Reserve, 

 thru the courtesy of Mr. Hensel, Forest Examiner in charge. The 

 writer has been occupied to a considerable extent with supervision 

 of construction of these fences, as well as actual labor on same, and 

 with rodent studies, especially on kangaroo rats, carried on month 

 by month with the fencing work. It was expected to have these 

 experimental areas fenced by June 30, 1918, but difficulties in secur- 

 ing materials and labor forced an extension of time, and they were 

 not entirely completed until late fall. However, the drought was 

 so severe on the Reserve, and especially on those portions of it 

 where the experiments are located, that the inauguration of certain 

 features of the v^^ork will have to await the next summer's rainy 

 season 



Severe injury to corn in the Rillito Valley near Tucson, by a 

 stalk borer, was reported to the writer in October, 1917. This borer, 

 according to Dr. Morrill, State Entomologist, was first reported in 

 this State in 1915 from Cochise County. (See Eighth Ann. Rep. 

 Ariz. Com. Agri. and Hort.) Some life-history observations were 

 undertaken in cooperation with the Commission of Agriculture and 

 Horticulture in order to secure adult moths and determine whether 



