INVESTIGATIONS: OF THE -DEPAR TiTE xh 
OF EN TOMOLOGYS 
SUMMARIZED BY 
P. J. PARROTT. 
The first effort of the Station toward an economic study of the 
destructive insects of this State was in 1894, when investigations? 
were undertaken to determine means for the prevention of injuries 
to truck crops on Long Island. The agriculture of this region of the 
State is largely trucking, on an extensive scale, and serious losses 
were being sustained by the growers of cucurbits, cabbage and 
cauliflower. The more prominent pests were the cucumber beetle, 
squash bug, cabbage worm, cabbage plusia, and cabbage aphis. At 
this time there was an urgent need for direction in the proper use 
of insecticides and in the employment of cultural and preventive 
measures that are calculated to avoid injuries by these agencies. In 
1895 attention was also directed to the San José scale,? which was 
first discovered on the Island by the Station entomologists, and to 
other species of scales. As opportunity has afforded, studies have 
been extended to other insects of a destructive nature throughout 
the State and special investigations have been undertaken of unusual 
outbreaks, which, during their duration, were of much concern to 
farmers. For convenience, the results of the more important of 
these studies are reviewed briefly under the names of the insects, 
which are classified according to their appropriate headings of 
Garden Insects, Fruit Insects and Field Crop Insects. — 
STUDIES ON GARDEN INSECTS. 
STRIPED CUCUMBER BEETLE. 
(Diabrotica vittata Fab.) 
Squashes, melons and cucumbers are grown to a considerable ex- 
tent in all sections of the State, especially on Long Island and in the 
vicinity of New York City where they form very important crops. 
+ Rpt. 132711 (1804). 
* Bul. 87 and Ann. Rpt. 14:605-617 (1895). 
[238] 
