December, '16] SELL: DIABROTICA 12-PUXCTATA 551 



Before either carbolineum or creosote can be unreservedly recom- 

 mended more extended experiments will be necessary, for there seems 

 to be some danger of injury to the trees. The carbolineum showed less 

 injury than the creosote. In no case did either material kill a shoot but 

 the growth of the trees injured was stunted or stopped altogether. 



In addition to these sprays and washes tanglefoot was applied to 

 forty trees. The purpose was to determine whether the weevil flew 

 to the terminal or crawled up the tree from the ground for feeding 

 and oviposition in the spring. 



Two bands were placed around the stem of each tree, one just above 

 the topmost whorl and one on the trunk just above the ground. It 

 was thought that the weevils crawling up from the ground would 

 become entangled in the lower band, those alighting in the branches 

 and completing the journey to the terminal by crawling would be 

 caught in the upper band, and only those which flew directly to the 

 terminal shoot would escape. 



In order to insure a heavy infestation two hundred adult weevils 

 were freed in the tanglefoot plot. The daj^ folloAving their introduc- 

 tion a large proportion of these weevils were found collected below the 

 lower bands, but none were found on the terminal shoots, and none 

 were found caught in the tanglefoot. Not a single time during the 

 season was a weevil caught in any of the bands. 



Up to the fifteenth of June none of the trees treated with tanglefoot 

 were infested. On the twenty-first of July, however, three Aveeviled 

 shoots were found in the plot. It is possible that the tanglefoot became 

 glazed and hard enough, during the cold rainy weather the latter part 

 of June, to permit its being crossed by the weevils. 



Out of the thirty check trees in this plot eleven were weeviled. 



From these results it is safe to say that the three substances tangle- 

 foot, creosote, and carbolineum deserve further trial on a larger scale. 



Further results from these and other experiments on weevil control 

 now under way will be published later. 



NOTES ON THE TWELVE-SPOTTED CUCUMBER BEETLE 



By R. A. Sell 



WILL THE TWELVE-PUNCTATA BECOME A FLOWER BEETLE? 



The Twelve-spotted Cucumber Beetle or 12-punctata {Diabrotica 

 duodecim-punctata Oliv.) is becoming more numerous in southern 

 Texas. Four years ago comparatively few of these beetles could be 

 found about Houston and these worked upon cane and truck crops, 

 but this year they can be found most anywhere and they attack a great 

 number of plants. Owing to an unusual period of dry weather the 



