February, '21] baerg: artichoke and other insects 99 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE FALL ARMY WORM AND SOME 

 CONTROL EXPERIMENTS 



By Roger C. Smith, Manhattan, Kans. 

 (Withdrawn for publication elsewhere) 



]\Ir. W. E. Hinds: This species occurred early in the season in 

 Alabama. This year, every county in the state had two or three 

 generations. The second and third generations cause the severe 

 damage. Those in Kansas are probably due to migration from the 

 southern area. 



Mr. Glenn W. Herrick : I would like to ask if it is positiveh' known 

 that all of these hundred larvae were parasitized. 



AIr. Roger C. Smith: Yes. 



President Wilmon Newell: The next is a paper by W. J. Baerg, 

 "A Girdler on Artichoke and Other Little Known Insect Pests." 



A GIRDLER ON ARTICHOKE AND OTHER LITTLE-KNOWN 



INSECT PESTS 



By W. J. Baerg, University of Arkansas 



Mecas inornata Say (Order Coleoptera, family Cerambycidae) . This 

 beetle, half an inch long, of a light gray color, is a girdler that attacks 

 artichoke {Helianthus tuherosus). The beetles begin ovipositing 

 early in July. The females when laying eggs girdle the main stem about 

 six inches from the top. Two girdles are made, about 1-1)4 inches 

 apart. Immediately above the lower girdle is the egg puncture. This 

 is exactly similar to the method followed by the Raspberry cane girdler 

 (Oberea himaculata) . The girdles are not clean cuts such as we find 

 in woody plants, but rather a series of holes encircling the stem. Ap- 

 ]5arently one female will deposit in a large ntimber of plants. In spite 

 of the fact that only a few beetles could be located, practically all the 

 plants in the field were attacked in the course of a few days. 



As a result of the injury, the leader in the plant dies and the plant 

 develops a bushy type of branching. 



The young larv^ae upon hatching begin to feed between the girdles 

 and later proceed towards the base of the plant. They confine their 

 injur\' largely to the pith. Apparently under certain weather condi- 

 tions the artichoke is not well fitted as a host plant. In only one out of 

 four or five i^lants showing egg punctures was there a full grown larva. 



