62 EXPERIMENT STATION EECORD. 



related legumes. ... In the spring cotton is often damaged seriously wliile it 

 is small by the adult beetles, but as this trouble occurs only on land on which 

 cowpeas were grown the preceding year it is apparent that cotton is a food 

 plant from necessity rather than from choice. ... It is quite possible that when 

 driven to it by hunger in early spring other plants, wild or cultivated, are eaten 

 to some extent." 



Technical descriptions are given of its several stages. " Feeding punctures 

 made by both males and females in cowpea pods can not be outwardly distin- 

 guished from the egg punctures. ... If either a feeding puncture or an egg 

 puncture reaches and penetrates a pea it causes an abnormal development of the 

 kernel even though no larva develops. The pea becomes gnarled, one-sided, and 

 light in weight and will be lost in the threshing or winnowing. The damage 

 caused by the feeding operations of the adult beetles on cowpeas is not seri- 

 ous. . . . The egg lies usually within the pea itself, more rarely in the parenchy- 

 matous tissue between the peas or between the pod and the pea." In oviposition 

 records of 2 females, kept by H. M. Russell, at Orlando, Fla., in July, 1907, 



1 deposited 115 eggs in 10 days and the other 130 eggs in 19 days. The normal 

 incubation period was found to be 5 or 6 days, with a shorter time when the 

 temperature averages higher. The larval period in the pea is said to vary from 

 7 to 14 days, depending on the temperature and the food supply. Very rarely 



2 larvfe reach maturity in one pea, but never more, although several eggs have 

 been found in close proximity. When full grown the larva cuts a hole to the 

 outside of the pea and then through the pod and drops to the ground. In no 

 case out of the several hundred beetles reared by the author did one pupate 

 before leaving the pea and the pod in which the larva developed. After enter- 

 ing the ground the larvte do not pupate at once, but remain quiescent for several 

 days in the earthen cells. Records of 458 beetles show an average of 17.4 days 

 to elapse between the entrance of the larvae into the soil and the emergence of 

 the adults. Thus a period of something more than a month is required for the 

 completion of the life cycle. 



The tachinid Myiophasia oenea was found to parasitize larvse put in jars 

 in September, 1908, 60 flies appearing in jars in which GS3 beetle larvte had 

 been placed. An examination of the puparium shows that the dipterous larva 

 does not leave the body of its host, but uses it for a pupal case. Two other species 

 of parasites, both hymenopterous, one a Eupelmus and the other a eurytomid, 

 both probably undescribed, have been reared from larva? of this beetle at Clem- 

 son College. There are also published records of Ennyomma clistoides and 

 Sigalphus sp., as having been reared from C ceneus at Baton Rouge, La. 



"In so far as cotton is concerned, the sovereign remedy would seem to be 

 to refrain from planting it on land previously occupied by cowpeas infested with 

 this pest. If this is not practicable the cotton may be planted thick, and by 

 delaying the ' chopping ' or thinning as long as possible a uniform stand may 

 still be secured. . . . Parasites are so abundant that there is no prospect of 

 serious damage, except for short periods over limited areas." 



Some new species of weevils of economic importance, W. D. Pieece (Jour. 

 Econ. Ent., 3 (1910), No. 4, pp. 356-366). — The author describes a genus (Lepido- 

 cricus) and 5 species as new to science, namely, L. herricki, which in 1904 in- 

 jured cotton at Easter, in Monroe County, Miss. ; Epiccerus lepiclotus, collected in 

 Texas; Phacepholis pallida, collected from cotton at Corpus Christi and Vic- 

 toria, Tex. ; Cercopeus artemisice, which was the source of injury to cherry trees 

 at Corvallis, Mont. ; and Ceutorhytichus Icsquerellw, a pest of cabbage plants at 

 Whitewright, Tex. 



Tables for the separation of genera belonging to the tribe Epicserini and of 

 the species of Epicserus are included. 



