1920 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



making them less attractive to lights. Temperature is a very important factor, 

 tlie lowest temperature I have recorded when collections were made was 47 degrees 

 at 9 p.m. At this temperature beetles are very scarce. 



Control Measures. We have been rather unfortunate in securing much 

 information on the natural control of these insects. It is a matter of common 

 observation that crows, blackbirds and domestic poultry feed readily on the young 

 grubs, while skunks undoubtedly also relish them. On several occasions we have 

 reared the tachinid Microphthalma disjuncfa and probably Pelecinus polytura'tpr, 

 although the specimen is not perfect. On two occasions in badly in- 

 fested fields 1 collected a number of cocoons of a digger wasp, pre- 

 sumably Tipliia inornata, but have not been very fortunate in rearing 

 tliem out. With the scarcity of birds and .other natural agencies of 

 control, the question of suppressing an outbreak seems to be one of agricultural 

 rather than entomological procedure. From a careful survey of the crop rotation 

 on several farms in Caradoc Township, it would seem to indicate that .arable land 

 sliould not be in pasture more than two years and a definite system of short crop 

 I'otation followed. The following rotation followed on one farm is of particular 

 importance, in that not only is the fertility of the soil increased, but since the 

 adoption, there has been no injury whatever by white grubs or any other insect, 

 l^'irst year oats, seeded to clover, hay crop removed, land planted to wheat, seeded 

 to clover again and planted again to potatoes and corn. Here we have two clover 

 (u-ops in four years and no crop longer than one year on the ground. This, of 

 course, is only applicable to arable land, the question of old pastures is still a 

 perplexed problem, except when brought under cultivaton. Trapping the beetles 

 by the use of lanterns is hardly applicable, because fully 75 per cent, of such col- 

 lections are males. It would appear that short crop rotations, frequent growing 

 of clover, and clean farming will do more to decrease the spread of this insect than 

 any other means. 



REPORT OF THE INSECTS OF THE YEAR— DIVISION NO. (5. 

 H. F. Hudson, Strathroy. 



Weather conditions in Western Ontario have been both favorable and otherwise 

 to insect life. The spring was cold and very wet, this was followed by a hot and 

 very dry summer. A brief summary of the more important injurious insects is 

 appended below: 



Clover Leaf Weevil {P. punctatus). In the low-lying pasture fields south 

 of London, Ont., more especially in and around Delaware Townshi]), clover and 

 timothy fields were most heavily infested with this weevil. They were present 

 literally by millions and probably no such heavy infestation has ever been witnessed 

 ill this section before. Every blade of timothy had a grub curled around it and 

 every clover leaf was badly riddled with small holes and over seventy grubs wei-c 

 taken from a single clover plant. Fortunately the extremely wet weather produced 

 a fungus disease amongst them and in less than a week the wliolo out])reak had 

 subsided. 



Cutworms. These insects have ])een responsi))Ie for considerable injury and 

 in nearly all cases the culprit has been the ^'glassy cutworm." In nearlv all cases 

 the affected field was an old sod. 



