333 



portion of the year when citrus fruits are unavailable for attack 

 because of their greenness will be reduced to a minimum, if not entirely 

 done away with. It is under such conditions that the excessive 

 mortality occurring in the rind will become a valuable factor in 

 preventing infestation or estabUshment of the pest, as each fruit will 

 in reality become a trap for stray females. The scarcity of host fruits 

 will also make spraying with poisoned baits a practical undertaking 

 should artificial control become necessary. The Mediterranean fruit 

 fly is quickly affected by low temperatures. A temperature of about 

 56° F. has lengthened the time required from the egg to the adult 

 stage from 14| to 91 days. A temperature ranging from 50° to 55° F. 

 will either seriously check development or kill large numbers of the 

 immature stages of the fly. The winter monthly mean temperature 

 of California and Florida are so similar to those of the citrus regions 

 of Southern Spain, Italy and Sicily, that it is to be expected that the 

 fruit fly, if introduced .to the mainland, would not become a serious 

 pest to Citrus spp. It happens that the very cold temperature neces- 

 sary to bring citrus crops to that degree of perfection in which they 

 are most susceptible to fruit fly attack, hkewise renders the fly so 

 inactive and sluggish that it may be disregarded as a pest for that 

 period of the year. The presence of C. capitata in California and Florida 

 will be a menace, but the pest can be successfully fought. The article 

 concludes with a bibhography of seven works. 



WiLDERMUTH (V. L.). ThreeComered Alfalfa Hopper. — Jl. Agric. 

 Research, Washington, B.C., iii, no. 4, January 1915, pp. 343-362, 

 1 fig., 1 plate. 



The popular name " three-cornered alfaKa hopper " is applied to 

 both Stictocephala festina. Say, and S.fesfina var, rufivitta, Van Duzee, 

 though the vahdity of the varietal name is considered doubtful. 

 S. festina has a wide distribution and is chiefly found throughout the 

 southern and south-western States, but also occurs in very limited 

 numbers in the northern half of the United States. It is seldom found 

 at elevations over 3,000 feet. The general distribution of the alfalfa 

 hopper, and the fact that it is found in isolated places under cultivation, 

 are doubtless due to the wide range of its food-plants and probably 

 also to the presence of native leguminous plants upon which, in all 

 probability, it lives. It is particularly fond of lucerne, Vigna sinensis 

 (cowpea), and the various clovers, but it has also been found feeding 

 upon trees, shrubs, herbs, and grasses. The author has found it feeding 

 as well as breeding on Capriola dactylon (Bermuda grass). Sorghum 

 halepense (Johnson grass), wheat, barley, oats, Medicago denticulaia 

 (bur clover), Melilotus officinalis (yellow sweet clover), and lucerne, 

 which is its principal food-plant. It has also been found on Glycine 

 hispida (soy bean), vetches and Hordeuni nmrinum. The adult, egg, 

 and nymph are described. The observations on its life-history and 

 habits have been carried out under widely differing conditions, Tempe, 

 Ariz., being in a hot, semi-arid country with an annual rainfall of about 

 8 inches, while Greenwood, Miss., is warm and humid with an annual 

 rainfall of nearly 50 inches. Under Arizona conditions, the combined 

 lengths of the egg and nymphal stages varied with the temperature, 

 from 35 to 114 days. In Mississipi a much shorter period was required, 



