101 



1900, that within a radius of about 1(»0 miles the country was being 

 devastated, his drug firm receiving daily orders from railroads radi- 

 ating from the city for Paris green, more of this insecticide being 

 sold in the previous week than in the preceding four years. The 

 opinion was expressed that in future the inhabitants of that region 

 might have to count upon this beetle as one of the expected annual 

 arrivals in spring. The country round about appeared to be alive 

 with them. 



May 14, lUOl, Maj. Harry Hammond wrote of this species and its 

 destruction of potatoes in the vicinity of Beech Island, S. C. Ma}" 2-1 

 Mr. eJohn Conner, Ripley, Tenn., wrote of injur}^ in Lauderdale 

 County. The insects were first noticed about the middle of Ma}^, 

 and by the end of the month early potatoes were entirely stripped of 

 their leaves. A similar report of injur}" was received from Mr. Albert 

 E. Seddon, Atlanta, Ga., Ma.v 25. 



Mr. J. P. Rudulph, Pleasant Hill, Ala., wrote May 27 that the Colo- 

 rado potato beetle made its tirst appearance in that locality that 3^ear, 

 but the timely application of Paris green checked its ravages. 



June 1 we received a communication from Mr. J. C. Russell, Clarks- 

 ville, Tex., in regard to the occurrence of the insect in that vicinity. 



It should be remarked that Mr. H. E. Weed, when entomologist of 

 the Mississippi Agricultural College Experiment Station,' writing of 

 this species in 1897, published a map showing that in 1896 it had occu- 

 pied the northern tw"o-thirds of Mississippi, the prediction being made 

 at that time that owing to the large increase in the acreage devoted to 

 Irish potato in that State and throughout the South it was probable 

 that the insect would continue its southward spread to the Gulf of 

 Mexico (Bui. 41, Miss. Agr. Exp. Sta., Mar., 1897, pp. 186, 187). 



THE RICE WEEVIL AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN THE FAILURE OF GER- 

 MINATION OF CORN IN THE SOUTH. 



In the course of investigations conducted b}" Mr. E. A. Schwarz, of 

 this oifice, in Texas, to place the hibernation of the Mexican cotton-boll 

 weevil, it was ascertained that not only the boll weevil but the rice 

 weevil (Oala/idra oryza Linn.) or so-called corn weevil, as it is better 

 known in that portion of the South, made use of cornstalks for winter 

 quartei's. Only a few of the boll weevil were observed in comparison 

 to thousands of the rice weevil that habitually hibernate in this manner. 

 The latter beetle also sometimes passes the winter in cotton bolls 

 and in other plants, but cornstalks, owing to the greater degree of 

 moisture which they contain in the pith, form a favorite winter 

 home of this insect. Thus it happens that the careless farmer has to 

 contend not onl}- with the weevils that are present in his corn when 

 planted, but with others which come out of the cornstalks on the 

 approach of warm weather and undoubtedl}- dig down into the soil to 

 the kernels. 



