56 



years, weather conditions being favorable. Owing to its very general 

 absence in localities formerly infested we have been unable, as we 

 did last year, to secure pnparia (flaxseeds) in volunteer wheat, show- 

 ing the occurrence of an extra brood in this State. Two lots of vol- 

 unteer wheat plants, from 8 to 10 inches high, were sent us in Novem- 

 ber, one lot from Marshall County and one from Big Stone Count}'^, 

 in both of which counties the fly was thought to be present. Several 

 hundred of these plants were carefidly examined, but contrary to last 

 year's experience we found no puparia." 



My attention has not been called directly to the ])resence of the 

 frit-fly {O semis soror Macq.) or the wheat-stem maggot {Meromyza 

 americana Fitch) although, from reports of certain ill-defined injury 

 to wheat from time to time, we have good reason to suspect that both 

 of these are in Minnesota at present. Professor Lugger reported the 

 frit-fly as injurious in 1893 and 1896. 



Chinch bugs (Bliss us leucopterus Say) have been conspicuous for 

 their absence during the year, no injury whatever being reported in 

 any county. During the wet weather of last fall I found a large 

 number of dead and dying chinch bugs on the station grounds, 

 evidently killed by a fungous growth. This condittion, prevailing in 

 most of the chinch-bug areas, is possibly, in part, the reason why Ave 

 have been free the past season. 



The Mediterranean flour moth {Ephestia l-vehnieUa Zell.), un- 

 doubtedly present and increasing in numbers for the past several 

 years in Minnesota, has this year made its presence so conspicuous 

 in certain mills as to call for some special work on the part of the 

 Entomologist, and the publication of a special report on the subject 

 for the l)enefit of the four hundred or more flour mills in Minnesota. 



The leaf -hopper {Empoasca tnali LeB.) is becoming more and more 

 evident in nurseries, and causing losses annually. We have done 

 some special work against this pest this season, an account of which 

 forms the subject of a j^revious paper. The work is purely j^relimi- 

 nary, but may prove interesting as illustrating what nuiy be done 

 with certain field apparatus. 



The plum curculio {Conotraclielus nenvphai' Hbst.) is proving 

 itself almost as great a foe to apples in Minnesota as it is to plums, 

 and is as much of a pest in this particular as is the codling moth. 



We have been startled by finding the imported Avillow curculio 

 (Cryj)f()i'Iii/)K-hus 7a pa f hi Linn.) in poplars shipped from New York 

 State with the inspector's certificate to nurserymen in Minnesota, 



a Since the above paper Avas tlelivered it has been stated to me by a carefully 

 observant entomologist in this State that he found a number of puparia of 

 Hessian fly in volunteer barley plants on Thanksgiving Day, 1004. — F. L. W. 



