276 Kansas Academy of Science. 



NOTES ON THE GREEN BUG (TOXOPTERA GRAMINUM 

 ROND.) IN TEXAS.- 



E. S. Tucker. 



THE following notes relate to the writer's first experimental 

 work in Texas, which consisted of an investigational 

 study of the green bug (Toxoptera graminmn Rond.). Under 

 appointment as entomological field assistant, the project was 

 entered upon on May 6, 1907, and prosecuted until the end of 

 the year, at Piano, Collin county. 



As a result of the sweeping outbreak of the green bug 

 earlier in the year, the grain growers of northern Texas in 

 particular, which country comprised the principal grain-pro- 

 ducing section of the state, had suffered almost complete loss 

 of their prospective wheat and oats crops. When the serious- 

 ness of the devastations first became apparent the grain 

 dealers met and appealed for assistance towards determining 

 measures for future control of the pest. In response the 

 Texas Agricultural Experiment Station authorized an investi- 

 gation, the means being provided by an Adams fund apportion- 

 ment. The arrangements included the fitting up of a field 

 station at Piano, for which the-grain dealers rendered financial 

 aid that deserves grateful acknowledgment. The locality 

 is tjrpical of the black prairie region on northern Texas, and up 

 to this disaster grain growing had been carried on here ex- 

 tensively. 



At the time of the writer's arrival on the scene only a very 

 slight percentage of the early grain acreage had been spared 

 with any prospect of making a fair yield, the ravaged fields gen- 

 erally having been plowed and planted to corn or cotton. On 

 account of a change of natural conditions, as explained later, 

 the season proved very unfavorable for a proper study of the 

 green bug, especially regarding its summer habits. The 

 present notes, however, deal only with matters aside from the 

 serial breeding of the insect. All records which contained 

 the main results of work have since been unfortunately de- 

 stroyed by fire. 



* Published by permission of Prof. B. Youngblood, director of the Texas agricultural 

 experiment station, which instituted the work. 



