April, '13] JONES: FALL ARMY WORM 231 



'phygma frugiperda, contained in the files of the Experiment Station of 

 the Porto Rico Sugar Producers' Association at Rio Piedras, P. R. 

 Determination of the two species of moths, Laphygma frugiperda and 

 Remigia repanda, were made by Dr. H. G. Dyar of the Bureau of 

 Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture. 



Distribution in Porto Rico. Adults of Laphygma jrugiperda 

 have been reared from larvae collected at Rio Piedras and Arecibo on 

 the north coast and Ponce on the south coast, and from pupse collected 

 at Mameyes on the north coast. Mr. D. L. Van Dine, entomologist 

 of this station, has observed larvae on sugar cane in the following 

 additional localities: — Buena Vista and Barceloneta on the north 

 coast, Naguabo on the east coast, and Santa Isabel on the south coast. 

 This list of localities gives a wide distribution around the island, near 

 the coast. Since Dr. Agustin Stahl of Bayamon, Porto Rico, included 

 this insect in his "Fauna de Puerto Rico," published in 1882, over a 

 quarter a of century ago, it is probable that it is generally distributed 

 over the island. The reason why it is recorded by the station, for 

 the most part, from the areas lying near the coast is because cane 

 growing, the industry with which the activities of the station are con- 

 nected, is generally restricted to those areas. 



Food Plants. Sugar cane, "malojillo" {Panicum barbinode, a 

 grass occurring naturally in Porto Rico on the low, moist meadows, 

 and grown extensively on such areas as food for stock), corn, and 

 onions, are the plants from which larvae of Laphygma frugiperda have 

 been collected and the adults reared at the station at Rio Piedras. 

 From the first three it has been taken several times, while the one 

 record of the occurrence of the larvae on onions refers to specimens 

 taken within the leaves of that plant in a small vegetable garden. 



From what is known concerning the food habits of the species else- 

 where, future investigation will undoubtedly add many more names 

 to this list of Porto Rican food plants. 



Records of Injuries and Occurrences. Larvae of Laphygma 

 frugiperda are sometimes very abundant locally in Porto Rico during 

 the wet and slightly cooler fall and winter months. The areas at- 

 tacked may be on land which neighboring rivers have recently over- 

 flowed or they may be on land where such flooding has not occurred. 

 So far as observed, serious injury to sugar cane at such times has been 

 to young cane. An outbreak in which cane areas were involved was 

 noted by Mr. Van Dine at Buena Vista on October 3, 1910, following 

 floods, and injury to cane subsequent to similar conditions occurred 

 at Rio Piedras during January, 1912. On November 2.3, 1912, larvae 

 and pupae were collected from land planted to sugar cane at Mameyes, 

 on a hillside where the ''grass worms" had been unusually abundant. 



