300 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 14 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE FALL ARMY WORM {LAPHYGMA 

 FRUGIPERDA Smith & Abbott) AND SOME CONTROL EXPER 



IMENTSi 



By Roger C. Smith, Assistant Entomologist, Kansas State Agricultural Experiment 



Station 



Early in September 1920, larvae of the fall army worm suddenly ap- 

 peared in large numbers in various localities in the central and east 

 central parts of this state. Inquiries began to come in on September 

 9th and by the 12th their injury to alfalfa was quite apparent at Man- 

 hattan. The outbreak was not general, but scattered and confined 

 to occasional fields. 



There were tbree primary areas of infestation in the state. First, 

 the largest one, in south central Kansas, comprising Barber, Harper, 

 Sumner, Cowley, Chautauqua, Kingman, Sedgwick, and Reno Counties." 

 The second was that about Manhattan, comprising the counties of 

 Riley, Clay, Gear}^^, Pottawatomie, and the northern part of Morris 

 County. The third comprised Anderson and Coffey Counties. The 

 larvae were first seen defoliating volunteer wheat and oats, then upon 

 young alfalfa which had been sown after harvest, and finally defoliat- 

 ing alfalfa which was not quite ready for the fourth cutting. Corres- 

 pondents reported that entire fields of volimteer wheat as large as 140 

 acres were eaten bare by the larvae. In all alfalfa fields seen, the dam- 

 age was localized in the field. There were several fields of alfalfa on 

 the college farm severely attacked, and it was in these fields that most 

 of the observations herein reported were made. 



The history of former outbreaks has been well given by Chittenden 

 (1901)^ and Hinds and Dew (1915).^ In this state this insect is not 

 an annual pest, the last outbreak occurring in the fall of 1911. From 

 the records of this station, it has apparently not since occurred in num- 

 bers until this fall. 



The nature of the recent outbreak, and the conditions leading up 

 to it, were typical, judging from the published accounts. Last win- 



^Contribution No. 64 from the Entomological Laboratory, Kansas State Agricult- 

 ural College. This paper embodies some of the results obtained in the prosecution 

 of project No. 115 of the Kansas Experiment Station. 



^Chittenden, F. H., 1901. Fall Army Worm and Variegated Cutworm. Bui. 

 29, N. S. Div. of Ent. U. S. Dept. Agr. pp. 13-45. 



'Hinds, W. E., and Dew, J. A., 1915. The Grass Worms or Fall Army Worms. 

 Alabama State Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 186, pp. 59-92. 



