308 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 12 



did not respond, probably due to the lower temperatures. When a 

 person stood perfectly quiet near a plant and a shadow was thrown 

 on the weed, some of the leafhoppers immediately flew about. When 

 an insect-net was moved about but without casting a shadow upon the 

 plant, the bugs did not fly from the weed. Evidently the insects do 

 not respond to a moving object but a shadow arouses some of them to 

 activity. 



Chairman H. J. Quayle : I see Prof. Doane is here now. We will 

 listen to his paper on "Weevils in Australian Wheat in California." 



WEEVILS IN AUSTRALIAN WHEAT IN CALIFORNIA 



By R. W. Doane, Stanford University, California. Collaborator, Bureau of Ento- 

 mology, U. S. Department Agriculture 



The great demand for vessels of all kinds that came with the begin- 

 ning of the late war soon interrupted the normal movement of food- 

 stuffs in all parts of the world. In a very short time the serious 

 results of this restricted movement began to be apparent in many 

 quarters. Vast quantities of food that were badly needed elsewhere 

 began to accumulate in certain centers where no provision was ever 

 made to handle it in such unusual amounts. 



One of the most serious situations brought about by this condition 

 was the accumulation of millions of bushels of wheat in the AustraUan 

 and New Zealand seaports, where most of it had to lay for many 

 months; some for three or four years, awaiting shipment. It was 

 inevitable that the weevils and other insects should take advantage of 

 such an opportunity to wax fat and multiply. 



I have not seen any account of the work that has been done in 

 Australia in the efforts to control the weevils there, but I have had 

 an opportunity to inspect much of the wheat that has come into San 

 Francisco and Los Angeles from Australia, and to see the way in which 

 the mills here handle the infested grain. 



The wheat was imported by the Grain Corporation of the United 

 States Food Commission, and sold to the mills that seemed to need 

 it most. Most of it went to mills in San Francisco and Vallejo, but 

 some went to Stockton and some to Los Angeles and vicinity, and 

 smaller amounts to Oregon and Arizona. All of the mills receiving 

 this wheat were working on government contracts, furnishing the 

 government a certain amount of flour or other products. The Grain 

 Corporation assumed no control over the wheat after it was taken 

 from the docks by the mills. 



