94 



appeared abovo ii^i-ouiid, but, ow iii_<>; to a <>ood rainfall through tlie 

 spring, did not do general injury. Here and there injury by tlie sec- 

 ond brood was i'e[)orted to us. College Station is tlie southernmost 

 point where wo obst^'ved injur}^ which was due to the first brood in 

 May. The haV)its of this pest are somewhat different from what they 

 are farther north, and it is therefore more difficult to combat. Where 

 small grains are grown in winter it migrates from them to the corn early 

 in June as elsewhere, and most injury is then due to the second brood, 

 in June or early July. But where no small grains are grown the bugs 

 emerge fi-om winter quarters by the middle of April and assemble on 

 the young corn in large numbers as soon as it is out of the soil. At this 

 time the air is often full of them. Ou May 8 from 20 to 50 adult bugs 

 and 5 to 15 newly hatched nymphs were to 1)0 found on each hill of corn 

 at the college. The first brood of adult bugs commenced to appear 

 about the middle of June. Tlie second brood was found the first 

 week of August, and a third brood is found about the middle of Sep- 

 tember, mostly on sorghum. Wherevei' sorghum stubble is left on 

 the land over winter injury is worse the next season, as the bugs 

 breed on it late in the fall and hibernate in the stubble. It has been 

 found that the bugs seem to prefer millet and sorghum to coi-n in 

 early sirring, and we are now planning experiments to use these as 

 trap crops for the i^rotection of the corn. 



Tliyanfa perditor Fab. was sent me from several points in north 

 Texas during the summer months, with reports that it occurred in 

 extraordinary numbers and had seriously injured oats, corn, and sor- 

 ghum, and was also in milo maize and cowpeas. The habits of the 

 pest seem to be very similar to those of Liodenna uJiIeri Stal, 

 described by I'rof. D. A. Saunders in South Dakota in 18!)8," for 

 which insect we first mistook it. Its identity was kindly determined 

 by Dr. II. T. Fernald. It occurs commonly in central and north 

 Texas on various crops. 



The larva of Diahrofica l'2-pu}ictata caused the replanting of corn 

 in a number of instances in central Texas. 



COTTON PESTS. 



The cotton square borer {Urduoies melmus Ilubn.). — The larva of 

 this dainty butterfly has been a serious pest of cotton for many years, 

 as well as that of Calycopis cecrops Fab. {Theclapa'os Ilubn.) This 

 season the forinei- species has been the more common observed by us, 

 The principal injuiy occui's in June by the larvae of the first brood 

 boring into and hollowing out the young squares. One larva will go 

 from square to square, thus soon stripping a plant, and often boring 

 into the stalk. Fortunately these larvae were severely parasitized, it 

 being difficult to secure an unparasitized pupa, and no injury was 



« So. Dak. Agr. Exi). Sta. Bill. . p. 57. 



