746 EXPERIMENT STATION KECORD. 



The second part (pp. 27-47) consists of notes on the important insects of 

 the year. The deciduous fruit and vine pests mentioned are the soutliwestern 

 green flea-beetle {Haltica folicea) which was the most notable through its in- 

 jury to apple trees and grapevines; the western rose chafer {Macrodactylis 

 iiniformis) ; the flower thrips, which was unusually destructive to late bloom- 

 ing varieties of peas, etc. The citrus pests briefly mentioned are the soft 

 brown scale {Lecanium Jiesperidum) , citrus thrips, and a species of cicada. 

 The field crop pests mentioned include the western army cutworm (Choriza- 

 grotis agrestis) ; a species of blister beetle {Tegrodera erosa), which ap- 

 peared in alfalfa fields; the corn flea-beetle {Ch(Btocnema ectypa) ; and a 

 species of bill bug {Spenophorus callosus) which attacked corn. Among the 

 pests mentioned as attacking vegetable crops are the melon aphis, grasshop- 

 pers, the harlequin cabbage bug, and a small black beetle {Blapstinus pimalis), 

 previously unknown as a crop pest. The cotton or melon aphis was the most 

 destructive cotton pest of the year. A species of Goldsmith beetle {Cotalpa 

 consoJjrina) was notably abundant in southern Arizona and did much damage 

 by stripping the leaves from Cottonwood trees. 



B-eport from, the division of entomology for the fiscal year ending March 

 31, 1914, O. G. Hewitt (Caiwda Expt. Farms Rpts. 1914, pp. 853-816).— The 

 first part of this report deals with the administration of the Destructive Insect 

 and Pest Act under the headings of the new plant quarantine or fumigation 

 stations, inspection and fumigation of imported nursery stock, field work against 

 the brown-tail moth, 1912-13, importation of parasites of the brown-tail and 

 gipsy moths, collection of parasites, colonization of parasites, Apanteles in Nova 

 Scotia, and parasites of native insects. The parts which follow report upon the 

 occurrence of and work of the year with the insects affecting cereals and field 

 crops, fruit crops, forest and shade trees, domestic animals and man, and the 

 garden and greenhouse, and with apiculture. 



Observations on the biology of Nematus erichsonii, Athalia spinarum, and 

 Hylemyia (Anthomyia) antiqua, V. A. Levtejev {Mat. po Isuch. Vredn. Nastek. 

 Moskov. Gub., 5 (1914), pp. 94-111; abs. in Rev. Appl. Ent., 2 (1914), Ser. A, 

 No. 6, pp. 312-374) • — A report of two years' observations of these pests in 

 Petrovo-Razumovskoje, near Moscow. 



Insect enemies of Sudan grass, W. Newell (Texas Sta. Circ. 7, n. ser. 

 (1915), pp. 5-18, figs. 6). — A number of native insects have found Sudan grass 

 (Andropogon sorghum sudanensis) , a forage plant introduced into the United 

 States by Piper from Khartum, Sudan, in 1909, to their liking. One class 

 attacks the seeds during their development or after harvest, while another class 

 attacks the growing crop and reduces the yield of forage. 



Those belonging to the first-mentioned class are the sorghum midge (Con- 

 tarinia [Diplosis] sorghicola), which is the most important enemy of the plant, 

 due to its destruction of the seed before maturity, and the Angoumois grain 

 moth. A i-eport of studies of the sorghum midge, a pest which has for many 

 years been familiar to growers of sorghum, milo maize, and all other crops of 

 this family, by Dean, has been previously noted (E. S. R., 23, p. 364). The 

 destruction of Johnson grass, which affords a constant breeding place for the 

 pest, is thought to be the most vital step in the control of this midge. The 

 Angoumois grain moth does not prevent the Sudan grass from making seed, but 

 the adult moths deposit their eggs in the seed heads before the harvest, the seed 

 thus becoming infested with larvae, and the moths continuing to breed in the stored 

 seed. It can be destroyed by fumigation, experiments having shown that carbon 

 bisulphid used at the rate of 15 lbs. to 1,000 cu. ft. of space with an exposure 

 of 12 hours did not affejat the germination of the seed. The author emphasizes 



