278 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 15 



for the past five or six years it has been gradually increasing in abun- 

 dance, particularly in central Indiana, until it has become a clover 

 pest of prime importance. Apparently it is not an insect which occurs 

 periodically but rather is one to be expected as an annual pest and its 

 range of destruction is being gradually extended each year. The 

 insect seems to prefer red and English clover and the injury caused by 

 the larvae is to the developing buds, these being killed by the larvae 

 which feed on the buds beneath the basal leaf sheaths. 



The striped cucumber beetle (Diabrotica vittata) is an annual pest of 

 considerable importance to cucumber and melon, which are extensively 

 grown and valuable crops in Indiana. The calcium arsenate and gyp- 

 sum (1 to 20) remedy suggested by Prof. H. A. Gossard was extensively 

 used in some sections of the state, and in all cases which have come to our 

 attention it proved thoroughly satisfactory. As an example, on 

 May 10 the beetles made their conspicuous appearance at LaFayette, 

 coming in swarms, apparently with an easterly wind, from the bottom 

 lands of the Wabash river, nearly a mile away. They attacked the cu- 

 cumbers in frames, by the thousands. Within a day after their appear- 

 ance the plants were dusted with the calcium arsenate-gypsum mixture 

 with very evident positive results, the beetles being found dead on the 

 soil a day later and very few live ones left to molest the plants. The 

 cucimibex beetle is most serious in Indiana during the months of May 

 and June and reports were received mostly during June. 



Aphids were abundant in some sections of the state, the most prom- 

 inent of which were the black peach aphis {Anuraphis persicaeniger), 

 the melon aphis {Aphis gossypii) which appeared late but was very 

 destructive nevertheless, and the gooseberry aphis {Aphis huughtonensis) . 



Flea beetles of various species, including the black flea beetle and the 

 striped species, were unusually abundant in Indiana the past season, 

 particularly in the western half and southern two-thirds of the state. 

 Com and potatoes were the usual crops attacked and the first reports 

 were received about May 20, and numbers of reports continued to come 

 to our attention until early in June. 



The cabbage root maggot {Phorbia brassicae) which is particularly 

 destructive to early cabbage, cauliflower and radish in the northern 

 part of the state, is without question the most important pest of these 

 crops in Indiana. Experiments were conducted at Fort Wayne and near 

 Hammond, Indiana, and the practicableness and effectiveness of corrosive 

 sublimate treatments, both as a dust and as a liquid, were thoroughly 

 demonstrated. The results of these experiments are given in Leaflet 

 123 of the Purdue University Agricultural Extension Department. 



