April, '11] SWENK: INSECTS INJURIOUS IN NEBRASKA 285 



corn fields and then later, during the fall, on wheat over a large area 

 in the Platte valley as just detailed. These two root infesting aphids, 

 then, have placed themselves on record as serious enemies of winter 

 wheat in Nebraska. 



Another, and I Ix'lieve unrecorded, serious enemy of winter wheat 

 came to our notice this fall from two separate localities, from Buffalo 

 and Holt counties, in the form of a Cyclocephala white grub. This 

 injury occurred in October, and the Buffalo County infestation was 

 fully examined by the writer in person. The same condition was com- 

 mon in many fields in the southeastern part of the county, namely, 

 that the plants had commenced dying about the first of September 

 and in the next month had died out completely or at least had only 

 a scattered sickly stand remaining. The soil in these fields was fairly 

 alive with the Cyclocephala larvsB, as I turned over fifty in a space less 

 than two feet square and did not secure all of them. Similar, though 

 less intense, injury has been experienced in this region during the past 

 three seasons. We do not yet know for certain the exact species con- 

 cerned in this work, as we have two common species of which it might 

 be either, namely, C. villosa and C. immaculata. C. villosa is, however, 

 much the more prevalent in the infested area, and it is probably that 

 species. 



For the past three seasons at least (1908-10) there have been more 

 or less serious local outbreaks in the wheat and oat fields of western 

 Nebraska of a wheat-head army-worm allied to the common wheat 

 head army- worm (Heliophila albilinea), to which species we referred 

 it until recently when a careful study of the adults proved it to repre- 

 sent a distinct species not heretofore recognized as a field crop pest. 

 Dr. J. B. Smith recently examined bred moths of the western Nebraska 

 army worm and pronounced them to be Heliophila limitata, a species 

 which he had described in 1902 from a single ma!e specimen collected 

 in Texas in June. In 1908 and, according to reports, in 1906 also, 

 during middle July there were local outbreaks of this army-worm in 

 the oat fields of Deuel County near Lewellen, and in some instances 

 the worms practically destroyed the crop by clipping off the leaves 

 from the stem and cutting off the heads of grain, there being on the 

 average, about one worm to each head of grain. In 1909 several locali- 

 ties were affected by this army-worm, especially about Trenton, Hitch- 

 cock County, Wauneta, Chase County, and Alliance, Box Butte County, 

 but the damage on the whole was not very severe. In middle July 

 (6 to 17) about Trenton and Wauneta, when the wheat was harvested 

 the stubb e was found infested with myriads of these worms, some of 

 which had been in evidence upon the heads a bit earlier in the season. 

 About Alliance the trouble was more in the oat fields, and while bar- 



