204 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 7 



in the boll weevil campaign, which involves the reduction of cotton 

 acreage, diversification and rotation of crops, the increase of live stock 

 production, etc. All of this means for one thing more corn and longer 

 storage for part of the increased crop. Within the past few years, 

 the boys of the South under the guidance of the Corn Club movement 

 have repeatedly demonstrated that the South can produce larger 

 yields of corn per acre than perhaps any other section of the country, 

 and withal can produce it more economically than any other section. 

 Alabama presents two records that may challenge the world. In 

 1911, a fourteen-year-old boy, whose father was a county demon- 

 stration agent, produced over 212 bushels of corn on an acre at a cost 

 of 9.6 cents per bushel. In 1913 another Alabama boy produced 

 232.7 bushels on a single acre, but his cost was between 19 cents and 

 20 cents per bushel. There is no longer any question that the South 

 can raise her corn. The real question now is, can she preserve it 

 from insect injury during storage, so that she may steadily increase her 

 production until she raises at least all that she needs and can profita- 

 bly utilize in her home consumption, which is bound to increase 

 greatly in the near future, for the South is apparently destined to 

 become the greatest section in this country for increasing meat pro- 

 duction upon the farm. 



There are several species of insects concerned in the injury to stored 

 corn, and their relative importance varies in different sections. The 

 most generally important of these species include two moths: the Indian 

 meal snout moth, Plodia interpunctella and the Angumois grain moth, 

 Sitotroga cerealella; three or four small beetles known generally as 

 enemies of stored products: the rust-red and confused flour beetles, 

 Tribolium ferrugineum and T. confusum; the square-necked grain 

 beetle, Cathartus gemellatus and the saw-toothed grain beetle, Silvanus 

 surinajnensis; and more important than all these put together in most 

 of the territory within 200 miles of the coast through the South Atlantic 

 and Gulf States and extending still further inland in Louisiana, Texas 

 and through Mexico is the so-called rice-weevil, Calandra oryza L. 

 This species is known so much more commonly here by the name of 

 "black weevil" that we think this common name should be generally 

 adopted. It is this species, the black weevil, that we have been study- 

 ing especially and to which we shall refer particularly in the balance 

 of this article. Fortunately, what is most effective for the control of 

 the black weevil is effective likewise in reducing injury by most of the 

 other species. 



There are several phases to the question of loss caused by insects 

 to corn, particularly during storage. This injury often affects seri- 

 ously the value of seed corn in the South. Infested kernels are not 



