ENTOMOLOGY. 659 



and has proved very destructive to corn. It is a sucking insect, feed- 

 ing on the sap which it sucks from the leaves and stalks, causing them 

 to turn yellow and frequently die. The insect in all its stages is inju- 

 rious to its host. The eggs are deposited mainly along the midribs of 

 the leaves, in the loose cellular tissue just below the epidermis. In the 

 earlier stages the insects seem to prefer the leaf sheaths or a protected 

 part of the leaf, as where one leaf overlaps another, but after the 

 fourth phase in their life cycle, they occur somewhat promiscuously on 

 the leaf and stem. The egg state is continued for 17 days. From the 

 nymphal state it passes through five stages, which makes the life cycle 

 about 00 days. Technical descriptions are given of the different 

 stages of the insect, and treatment suggested. Where plants are 

 badly infested it will probably be best to burn them. The exact 

 natural food of the insect is not known, but it is believed to be con- 

 fined probably to grasses, and it seems safe to replant an infested field 

 with almost any other crop than corn or allied crops. 



The can na leaf roller has been noted for the past 3 years in the vicin- 

 ity of the station and has occasioned serious damage to these plants. 

 The leaves are either rolled up from one side by the larva 1 , or, as is 

 more frequently the case, the younger leaves are fastened before they 

 have unrolled to any extent. The caterpillars feed in the rolled up 

 leaves, eating out the soft tissue. Notes are given upon the life history 

 of this insect, together with technical descriptions of its various 

 phases. The canna-leaf roller, the author states, can doubtless be 

 controlled by carefully cleaning off and burning the dead plants and 

 trash from the beds during the winter season. The most of the pupa? 

 and larva*, which pass the winter in these leaves and trash, will thus be 

 destroyed. The rolled up leaves should be watched for in the spring 

 and cut off and burned. 



Remedial work against the Mexican cotton-boll weevil, L. O. 

 Howard ( U. 8. Dept. Ayr., Division of Entomology Give. 33, 2. ser., 

 pp. 6). — Work done in Texas by C. H. T. Townsend, when a field agent of 

 the division showed that the cotton-boll weevil is attracted by sweets. 

 Preliminary experiments with confined weevils suggest treatment of 

 overwintered beetles with a mixture of molasses, with one-fourth its 

 volume of arsenic, applied to the volunteer stalks of cotton in the 

 spring when the leaves are beginning to appear, and treatment of 

 young planted cotton with a spray made of white arsenic, If to 2 oz. 

 boiled in 1 gal. of water until thoroughly dissolved, mixed with 2 or 3 

 gal. of cheap molasses and diluted with 40 gal. of water. 



"The careful study of the weevil damage in Texas conducted by the division during 

 the last 3 or 4 years has demonstrated that the prevention of weevil damage is more 

 a question of the adoption of a proper system of cultivation than of remedial or 

 preventive schemes, such as the use of poisons. In other words, it is admitted by 

 intelligent planters everywhere that the presence of the weevil is made possible by 

 a system of culture which admits of the existence of volunteer cotton, and if the 

 methods followed are such as to prevent such volunteer growth the weevil will 

 rarely, if ever, bo troublesome." 



