180 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [VoL 3 



President Britton: Mr. John J. Davis, Urbana, 111., will now 

 present his paper, entitled: "Insect Notes from Illinois for 1909." 



INSECT NOTES FROM ILLINOIS FOR 1909 



By John J. Davis, Offlcc of the State Entomologist, Urhana, III. 



The following notes are taken from observations by the writer, 

 and, unless otherwise indicated, were made in and about Chicago. 



Insects of the Truck Farm and Vegetable Garden 



The common asparagus-beetle (Crioceris asparagi Linn.) is not 

 very widely distributed, for it is known to occur only in a compara- 

 tively small area northwest of the city. Where found, however, it is 

 a pest of great importance every year. 



The imported cabbage- worm (Pontia rapce Sch.) was not so gen- 

 erally destructive as in previous years, but in restricted localities, and 

 also in the west-central part of the state, the crop was a total failure 

 because of it. 



The cabbage-maggot {Pegomyia hrassicce Bouche) is annually a 

 pest of greatest importance ; in fact, the growing of early cabbage 

 and cauliflower has been almost entirely discontinued because of it. 

 Midsummer and late cabbage is seldom noticeably injured, nor are the 

 cabbage plants often injured in the seed-bed. Many of the remedies 

 which have been proposed by writers were tried, and only two gave 

 favorable results, these being the tarred felt cards and hellebore 

 decoction, the latter proving the more satisfactory. Applications of 

 commercial fertilizer are of much value. 



The cabbage-aphis {Aphis brassiccb Linn.) was not so generally 

 destructive this year as in previous years, when it has ruined large 

 acreages of cabbages. 



The striped cucumber-beetle {Diahrotica vittata Fab.) is seldom 

 a very important pest, and when present it is usually readily con- 

 trolled by the use of some simple repellant, such as air-slacked lime, 

 dust, land plaster, etc. This year no appreciable injury was done by 

 this insect. 



The melon-aphis {Aphis gossypii Glov.) has never been destructive 

 to curcubits out-of-doors in the vicinity of Chicago, but in west-central 

 Illinois it is usually one of the most important considerations in the 

 growing of melons. This year, however, it was much less common 

 than in former years. Greenhouse cucumbers, an important product, 

 are often badly injured by the melon-aphis, but where fumigation 



