558 



EXPEKIMENT STATION EECOKD. 



The heads In the cage without insects were pollinated by rolling between the 

 palms. The results are tabulated as follows : 



Seed production of variously treated clover Mossoms. 



From these results the author concludes that bumblebees are responsible for 

 about 95 per cent of the clover seed produced and that a small amount of 

 clover seed is formed by natural self-pollination. 



Corn weevils and other grain insects, R. I. Smith (North Carolina Sta. Bui. 

 203, PI). 5-27, figs. 16). — This bulletin was prepared to furnish farmers with 

 a more accurate knowledge of the various grain pests and methods of combating 

 them. The author considers $2,285,450 a conservative estimate of their annual 

 injury to corn and wheat crops alone in North Carolina. 



The species considered are the rice weevil, granary weevil, dark meal worm 

 (Tenebrio ohscurus), yellow meal worm (T. molitor), cadelle, saw-tooth grain 

 beetle {Silvanus surinamensis) , Angoumois grain moth, Indian meal moth, 

 Mediterranean flour moth, and meal snout moth (Pyralis farinalis). A con- 

 sideration of the parasites and predaceous enemies, and preventive and remedial 

 measures concludes the account. 



The author found from experiments that the adult grain moths are killed by 

 the vapor from a small quantity of carbon bisulphid, but that the grain beetles 

 require a much greater strength. It appears to be even more difficult to kill 

 the larvae and pupje of the rice weevil and Angoumois grain moth in their 

 burrows. 



Numerous fumigating experiments were made in a practically air-tight fumi- 

 gating room, namely, one having a padded refrigerator style door and the inside 

 walls covered with asbestos. In this room it was found that using 3 lbs. of 

 carbon bisulphid to 1,000 cu. ft., fumigating for 21 hours killed practically all 

 adult insects, but not over 70 per cent of the larvse and pupae of the Angoumois 

 grain moth or rice weevil. The author concludes that carbon bisulphid at any 

 reasonable strength can not be successfully used for fumigating grain in ordi- 

 nary corn cribs, grain boxes, or store rooms. 



The general entomological ecology of the Indian corn plant, S. A. Forbes 

 (Amer. Nat., J,3 (1909), No. 509, pp. 2S6->30/).— " With the 'exception of the 

 ear the whole plant lies open and free to insect depredation, and ... is able 

 to maintain itself in the midst of its entomological dependents only by virtue 

 of its unusual power of vigorous, rapid, and superabundant growth. . . . The 

 com insects exhibit no structural adaptations to their life on the corn plant — 

 no structures, that is to say, which fit them any better to live and feed on com 

 than on any one of the many other kinds of vegetation. ... In short, in the 

 entomological ecology of the corn plant we see nothing whatever of that nice 

 fitting of one thing to another, specialization answering to specialization, either 

 on the insect side or on that of the plant, which we sometimes find illustrated 

 in the relations of plant and insects." 



