383 



Leguminous plants such as cowpeas, beans, etc., are much preferred 

 to other plants during the summer and early autumn, especially during 

 the pod-formation period. Rattle-box {Crotalaria urasamoensis) 

 probably offers one of th^^ greatest possibilities as a trap and propa- 

 gating crop during the summer. The plant itself is probably not more 

 or perhaps as attractive to the bugs as cowpeas and beggarweed, but 

 the blossoms are very alluring to the parasites, the piincipal one, 

 Trichopoda pennipes, being a honey-loving insect and a constant 

 visitor to the flowers of rattle-box. From 10 to 80 per cent, of the 

 examples of Nezara viridula collected on this plant bore eggs of Tricho- 

 poda pennipes. On this account it seems that rattle-box should be 

 grown as a propagating plant during summer and thus increase the 

 number of parasites. The long blooming and pod-formation period 

 adds much to the value of the plant as a trap and propagating plant. 



MozNETTE ((}. F.) U.S. Bur. Entom. A Blossom Destroying Beetle 



on the Mango. — Qt.iitj. Ball. Florida State Plant Bd., Gainesville, 

 iv, no 3, April 1920^ pp. 95-98. [Received 10th July 1920.] 



A beetle, Anomala undulata, causes at times great damage by des- 

 troying the whole, or parts, of the floral spikes of the mango. Different 

 groves seem to be attacked in different seasons, while others, previously 

 attacked, escape. The beetles are active at night, and burrow in the 

 soil at the foot of the tree by day. The species is closely related to the 

 May-beetles [Lachnosterna]. but smaller, and the larval habits are 

 probably similar. The trees are heavily attacked, as many as thirteen 

 hundred beetles having been taken on a tarpaulin from a single jarring 

 of a tree. The beetle has also been recorded as attacking the flowers 

 of other fruit trees and crops in various parts of the United States. 

 The best method of control is the addition of a poison to the spray 

 normally used when the mango is sprayed for Colletotrichum ; two 

 pounds of powdered lead arsenate or zinc arsenite to 50 gals. Bordeaux 

 mixture (3-4-50) is added after the admixture of two pounds of soap. 

 A good agitator is necessary in the spraying outfit. The spray should 

 be particularly directed at the flowers, as the beetle does not attack the 

 dormant foliage, and very httle if any new growth is present at the 

 time of blossoming. 



Quarantine Department Report on Inspections and Interceptions, all 

 Ports and Stations, for the Quarter ending March 31, 1920. — 



Qtrly. Bull. Florida State Plant Bd., Gainesville, iv, no. 3, April 

 1920, pp. 102-103. [Received 10th July 1920.] 



The insects intercepted included : — The black fly, Aleurocanthus 

 woghimi from Cuba twice on Citrus, once on mango, and once in a 

 mail package in connection with the parcel post inspection ; Aspidiotus 

 destructor, 29 times on shipments from Cuba, Porto Rico and the Isle 

 of Pines ; Aspidiotus {Targionia) hartii on yam from Georgetown 

 [S.C. ?] ; and San Jose scale [Aspidiotus perniciosus] on 36 shipments 

 from other States, chiefly the south-eastern ones, but mcluding points 

 as far west as Louisiana and as far north as North Carolina. 



