424 W. D. FUNKHOUSER 



the country (Fitch, 1851; Riley, 1880; Comstock, 1888; Packard, 1890; 



Saunders, 1904:242-243), and may probably be considered as the most 



important of the local Membracidae so far as injurious habits are concerned. 



On the whole it is believed that the importance of the Membracidae as 



injurious insects has been exaggerated. The fact that many species of 



the family are very abundant locally and very little injury to hosts can be 



attributed to their activities, would seem to indicate that in this basin their 



economic importance may be discounted. This may of course be due to 



the fact that the combination of favorable crop and injurious species is 



not represented in the basin and does not discredit the reports from other 



localities. 



CONTROL 



Because of the fact that the Membracidae have not been considered as 

 a pest in the basin, no control measures have been tried. With our present 

 knowledge of the family, however, a number of methods suggest them- 

 selves as efficacious in case the insects should become destructive. 



Since most of the species that might prove harmful are dependent on 

 succulent weeds for nourishment during the nymphal stages, the removal 

 of such weeds from the vicinity of the host infected would destroy the 

 food plants necessary for their development. 



The egg masses of the species concerned are easily located and the scars 

 are sufficiently characteristic to insure instant recognition. Such egg 

 masses are usually found on comparatively young stems, and could be 

 removed by intelligent pruning and then destroyed. 



The nymphs of all species are very soft-bodied and habitually rest in 

 the crotches of twigs and the axils of leaves, where they could be easily 

 reached by contact sprays. Liquid sprays of the miscible oil or nicotine 

 type would run down the twigs and collect in such places, even if applied 

 in a very careless and superficial manner to the tree. 



Very few if any of the forms of the Homoptera are so poorly adapted 

 by habits and like factors to resist the ordinary control measures of the 

 entomologist, as are the tree-inhabiting species of the Membracidae, and 

 it seems hardly likely that in orchards or forests in which the simplest 

 kind of preventive work is done they will ever become a serious pest. 



On small crops the problem would be more complex, since the use of 

 contact sprays might not be advisable and the egg masses not easily 

 taken. Even in such cases, however, the insects would doubtless depend 



