August, '17] GARMAN: NOTES FROM KENTUCKY 413 



A FEW NOTES FROM KENTUCKY 



By H. Garman, Lexington, Ky. 



With a very cold, cloudy, backward spring, insect problems have 

 not come to the front in Kentucky as early as usual, but several 

 insect pests have already claimed some attention. 



The Hessian fly is being closely studied in the western end of Ken- 

 tucky with a view to learning more of variations in its life-history 

 from season to season. The adults have been abroad since March 25 

 on wheat sown September 28 and are numerous in that end of the 

 state, though the wheat itself was in many places destroyed by frost 

 and the promise for a crop is very unsatisfactory. The evidence 

 secured by us last fall and this spring shows that owing to the influence 

 of excessive drought in delaying volunteer wheat and also in keeping 

 farmers from planting early, few or no adults emerged in the fall of 

 1916. But when flaxseeds were brought indoors at that time the 

 adults came out in a few days, showing that they were ready and 

 would probably have emerged in 1916 as they appeared to have done 

 in 1915, if we had had a week more of warm weather. As it chanced, 

 cold weather put a stop to their activities in October. With the first 

 warm days they came out this spring. I am still of the opinion that 

 a brood of adults matures in the fall in this region during some of our 

 long open falls. We hope to solve this question next fall. 



The buffalo gnat (SimuUum pecuarum) was abundant for a day or 

 two in one county in Western Kentucky this spring. Some mules 

 were actually killed by it. It disappeared as suddenly as it came, 

 leaving farmers wondering as to where it came from, some of them 

 holding that it came from some distance on a cold west wind. Exami- 

 nation of the locality showed it entirely unsuited to the breeding of 

 the insect. The streams are small, and dry up completely, it is said, 

 in summer. Some pupse of a Simulium were collected at the time in 

 partly submerged willow in the edge of a creek. These appear to be 

 of the type of S. venustuni, though a determination based upon the 

 pupal characters seems not to be safe in view of present knowledge of 

 the life-history of our species. As a matter of fact, in the two cases 

 of outbreaks of buffalo gnats which I have investigated in Kentucky, 

 neither larvse nor pupse that can be considered as belonging to the 

 species were discovered, and the local conditions were not such as 

 have been described as suitable for the breeding of the pest. It is 

 evident that there is much yet to learn about the life-history and 

 habits of the buffalo gnat. 



